Green Party leader Trevor Sargent today launched a stinging attack on the Fianna Fail saying the country could no longer afford to be ruled by the current Government.
Speaking at annual conference in Kilkenny he said that that for all the Taoiseach's talk of community values, the reality was that the poor were getting poorer and developers were the big winners.
They in turn bankrolled Fianna Fail and their Progressive Democrat "poodles", he said. Land rezoning profits which could be diverted to provide new communities with basic facilities were instead lining the pockets of wealthy speculators, he said.
"Under this government you'd be more likely to get a pub and a bookies shop than the amenities so many communities are crying out for," he said. Mr Sargent added: "Bribery, corruption and bad planning are a legacy of Fianna Fail domination in Government, locally and nationally."
Greens in power would implement the recommendations of the Kenny Report which proposed a windfall tax on development land - a proposals based on the principle that communities, rather than developers, should benefit from rezoning.
He said his party would build 10,000 social housing units a year until the waiting lists were cleared and would double insulation standards in every new home - giving families warmer places in which to live and saving them money at the same time.
The Government had spent billions on commuter motorways which had failed, he said during an attack on transport policy.
"This is a government which values the volume of construction ahead of good design. This is a Government that has spent four times more on new roads than on new public transport," said Mr Sargent.
If ministers had taken the Green's advice and switched the spending ratio around, there would already be a Western rail corridor linking Limerick, Galway, Sligo and Cork.
There would also be a commuter rail service to Navan and "an extensive light rail system throughout the Dublin area that actually joins up," he said.
Earlier the party chairman, John Gormley, told the conference they needed to embark on a "myth-busting campaign" to deal with government attacks on them ahead of the election. He said he agreed with Michael McDowell that a smaller party would play a pivotal role in the next election.
It would be up to the voters to choose whether it was the PDs again or the Greens. And dismissing Mr McDowell's description of them as 'sandal wearers' he said they would always prefer sandals to jackboots.