The Green Party today spurned coalition advances from Fianna Fáil ahead of the forthcoming General Election.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said in a newspaper interview today that Fianna Fáil would consider the Greens as a coalition partner provided its tempered policies which could threaten economic growth.
Mr Ahern told the Irish Examiner: "If you look at our record, Fianna Fáil has demonstrated that we have a good story to tell on our environmental policies and our green credentials. We introduced the plastic bag levy, plus strong initiatives on waste recycling."
However Green Party leader Trevor Sargent ridiculed Fianna Fáil's record on environmental issues and accused Mr Ahern of desperate electioneering.
"This clearly indicates Fianna Fáil and particularly Dermot Ahern aren't really interested in our economic policies which are modelled on very successful countries and have been worked out in conjunction with business people in Ireland and are very much needed.
"I have to say also that the minister has some cheek saying that his party has a good record on the environment. The European Environment Agency certainly hasn't said that, and has been very clear that Ireland is going to cost itself and every taxpayer hugely into the future [because of high greenhouse gas emission levels]," Mr Sargent told RTE radio.
Ireland ranks bottom of the EU league table of waste production per citizen and each citizen accounts for 735kg of waste compared to 230kg among Polish people, he added.
Last year the Green Party voted not to enter into any pre- election voting pacts with Fine Gael or Labour but consider its options afterwards.