Leader's speech:An edited version of Green Party leader Trevor Sargent's main address at the party's annual conference on Saturday in which he pledges cleaner politics, action on climate change and measures to help children.
"Today, history was made in Croke Park. We applaud the GAA for choosing to reach out the hand of reconciliation. It's a proud day for us all.
There was a time when people said that the Green Party being in Government was about as likely as the English rugby team playing in Croke Park. Well, times have changed.
In the coming elections, on both parts of this island, we the people, have an opportunity to make history.
And a vote for a Green Party candidate on any part of this island is a vote for a secure and prosperous future.
You have the power to choose because on election day power resides not with the politicians or the bureaucrats or the corporations. On election day, power resides with the people.
It is clear that our country is much improved since the days of mass unemployment. No one who spent wasted time on a dole queue will look back with nostalgia to that bygone era.
A vibrancy has come with our economic success. There is an optimism and openness in Irish people today which was absent in times of economic failure and the emigrant ship. Today, the ships are returning. Instead of saying goodbye, we now have the challenge and the privilege of welcoming others to our shores.
While we are right to celebrate our success we are also aware of the need to prepare for future challenges. I believe that there is a hunger in our country for a new sense of direction; one which brings with it the social values and human decency that economic growth on its own cannot deliver.
Our reliance on foreign direct investment has served us well but has also left us vulnerable.
While our country is a world leader in international finance we are lagging behind when it comes to the provision of basic services at home.
Our education system needs significant new investment.
There is a fundamental conflict of interest at the heart of this Government's health policy. Private companies are being asked to play a critical role in our health system when their priority is profit. This is failing to deliver. What we now have is a chaotic health system where profits come before people.
The free market has failed to deliver, failed to deliver warm and inexpensive housing for our young people. While a select few have become rich through speculation, others are left struggling to pay mortgages and many, many cannot buy a home.
A lack of proper planning has also cost us dearly, as our time and energy is wasted on gridlocked roads. The rise in greenhouse gas emissions which has resulted from that failure can no longer be ignored. The cost of failing to plan, the cost of an inefficient oil-based economy, the cost of short-sighted incompetence is mounting. These are the biggest challenges that we face.
Ireland has risen to many challenges in the past. Ireland has in the past made profound changes. In the 1950s, the great TK Whitaker had the vision to guide our country from a closed to an open economy. In the late 1980s, Alan Dukes' Tallaght Strategy helped Ireland to deal with a huge national debt. On both occasions change was possible only because the Irish people were ready and willing to take a new step in the right direction.
Facing today's new challenges I believe that Ireland is again ready to choose a new direction. I believe that Ireland is ready for change.
I believe that the Irish people understand the need to stop climate change. I believe that the Irish people are prepared to join us in responding to this challenge.
For many years, I have been meeting people all over Ireland who have told me: 'I understand the Green Party. I see where you're coming from.' However, in the past year, this has changed. People are now saying: 'I want the Green Party in government. Ireland needs the Green Party in government.'
Now, in 2007, the Irish people are realising that Green thinking is desirable, necessary and urgent. They're choosing Green in what they buy. They're choosing Green in how they spend their time. They're choosing Green in the ways they live, work, eat and travel.
The Irish people - not the Government - are providing the leadership that this country needs.
In the face of new challenges, the Green Party represents the most relevant, the most vital and the most necessary political movement of our age.
We have seen Green parties achieve great things all over Europe - in Sweden, in Germany, in Finland.
We need to choose a new direction for Ireland. Choosing a Green government means proper planning, warmer housing, and better public transport. It means money saved on our electricity bills and our gas bills. It means tens of thousands of jobs generated by the creation and export of the green energy products that the rest of the world now wants and needs.
Right now the present Government is losing business opportunities.
Its failure to support clean, green energy enterprise has driven Airtricity, an Irish wind energy company, to invest hundreds of millions of euro abroad - in China, in Scotland, in the United States but not in Ireland. Where is the sense in that? The Green Party will provide the necessary financial and political support for offshore wind, wave and tidal power. We will help to build a European supergrid to supply clean, green Irish energy to our homes, our businesses and to the heart of Europe.
During [the Greens' time in government in Germany] they created 170,000 jobs and helped generate €16 billion turnover by providing the necessary support to the German renewable energy sector. That is what you get with Greens in government.
Let's restore pride to Irish farming. Ireland needs to produce energy crops and timber, as well as high-quality food. The Green Party will ensure that, unlike this Government, which is sending €270 million out of the country to buy carbon credits abroad, we will directly invest that money at home to support green energy enterprise.
Let's work with Irish builders and homeowners to make every home in Ireland dry and warm. Let's make high standards the norm all over Ireland.
Within 10 years, the Green Party will ensure that every new house in this country will be designed and built as carbon neutral. Energy bills will be slashed. No more dodgy builders on my watch.
Ireland has to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets. Let us lead and the other political parties will follow in Ireland's energy future. The choice before you now is between the Green Party - a party that will lead change - or those parties that fear change.
Now is the time for you to decide who is radical and who is redundant.
Other parties are engaging in, let's be fair, in auction politics.
But now is the time for action. Not auctions.
Ireland has been led down the road of auction politics before during the disastrously irresponsible election campaign of 1977. As a result Irish people suffered for years. We must not repeat the mistakes that were made 30 years ago. This is 2007, not 1977.
'We don't inherit the earth from our parents. We borrow it from our children.' That simple message holds true today more than ever. Each of us has an obligation to pass on a world, a country and a community in which our children and our grandchildren can live and prosper.
And this is a promise I make to you: the Green Party will give a new deal to every child in Ireland. A Green government will live up to the central aspiration of the 1916 Proclamation: to cherish all the children of the nation equally.
The Green Party commits that, in our first five years in office, we will provide the resources so that every child in Ireland has the best possible start in life. Let's ensure that every child has a home and that every home is warm and dry. The Green Party will double the output of affordable homes.
Imagine an Ireland in which every child can be safe in its community.
The Green Party will put more gardaí in our communities. Imagine an Ireland in which mothers and fathers don't have to worry about paying for their child's medical bills. And that reality will cost less than half of what this Government wasted on the failed PPARS computer system. The Green Party will deliver medical cards for all children under six.
Imagine an Ireland in which no child with a disability is treated as a second-class citizen. We will leave no parent in a state of anguish while they wait years to get a special needs assessment for their child.
Imagine an Ireland in which no child is stuck in an overcrowded classroom. We will invest in education to bring class sizes down to 20 within five years.
Imagine an Ireland in which parents can spend time with their children. Let's plan communities so that people can work near their home and let's ensure the highest standard of paid parental leave and maternity benefit so that every parent in Ireland can enjoy the early years of their child's life.
Climate change is the issue that will shape the world in which our children and their children live. Stopping climate change is a matter of basic human rights. It is the challenge that requires us to take a new direction. We owe it to our children to take that new direction.
Fr Peter McVerry, who works with the homeless, said recently that, in Ireland, 'Those in political power . . . have to be in collusion . . . with big business and with vested interests'.
That's not acceptable. If we are to feel pride in our politics - and if we are to achieve results through our politics - that needs to change.
I believe that Irish people want more honesty, competence and conviction in politics. Irish people want an end to the rezoning culture, which has done more than anything else to corrupt our political system.
I believe that no one wants politics to be compromised by corporate interests. I believe that the Irish people will support an end to corporate donations in politics.
We deserve a democracy in which we can feel pride.
It's time for that new direction.
Make the Green choice this year, so that in 10, 20, 30 years time, you can say: 'In 2007 I chose to fight climate change, in 2007 I chose to clean up Irish politics, in 2007 I chose to provide the best start for every child in Ireland.' Take up the challenge. It's time.
It's time for Green thinking. It's time for Green Government.