The leader of the Green Party, Mr Trevor Sargent, has moved to rule out any early decision by the party to join a pre-election pact between the main Opposition parties.
While Fine Gael and Labour have an agreement to co-operate on local authorities, Mr Sargent said the Greens had no intention of joining such an alliance because the party wanted to explain its own policies.
"Before any talk of pacts, the people deserve to know exactly what each party stands for," he said yesterday.
"The best way that the public can judge the merits of the constituent parties that may make up a government is to understand where they plan to make changes and judge those policies on their merits."
While Mr Sargent's position suggests the Greens are determined to extract the maximum policy commitments in any future discussions, he denied that the party was "playing hard to get" in advance of any negotiation on an alliance.
Mr Sargent maintained that the party aimed to provide clarity to voters on its policy positions. While the Greens did not rule out joining a pact at a later stage, he declined to indicate when the party might finalise its stance.
He said there was a tendency among commentators to explain pacts in numerical terms instead of policy terms. A pact would work only if the parties had worked out positions to effect change in government. At a briefing to highlight the party's plans for the new Dáil term, Mr Sargent said the Greens' main focus was to be effective in opposition and to explain its policy programme.
"The results of this work will be our ability to go into any negotiation either prior to or after any future election with detailed analysis completed on the real changes that a Green government would bring." The party wanted to change the social welfare model, "revolutionise" renewable energy and public transport and prioritise strategic planning and affordable housing.
The party chairman, Mr John Gormley, said EU foreign policy should move away from the creation of a European army.
The Minister for Defence, Mr O'Dea, said such a position would be "anathema to Fine Gael in particular".
"As we all know, Fine Gael believes that Ireland should be one of the architects of any new EU defence system," Mr O'Dea said.
