As it aims for Cabinet seats, the Green Party must marry adherence to principle with the ability to compromise, writes Liam Reid, Political Reporter
There was a simple message the Green Party was trying to get across during it's annual conference in Cork at the weekend - it is a party that can and wants to "do" Government.
The other loud message that came out from Cork was that despite wanting to be in Government, there would be no pre-election pact with any party.
The Green party may want coalition, but it appears the party is not yet willing to jettison or dilute any Green policies in pursuit of that goal.
Election strategy aside, the focus of the Greens at the weekend was on rebranding themselves.
The Greens are acutely aware of their past image as a party of protest, a party which is unrealistic and anti-development. Or to put it more bluntly - as Green TD Dan Boyle did at the weekend when quoting the PD view of them - a "crazy" party.
This conference was very much an attempt to dispel this perception and to appeal to the middle ground in the Irish electorate with a set of proposals on spending and tax that could prove attractive to the floating voter.
"We will make sure the electorate know exactly what they can expect from the Greens when negotiations take place to form a Government," party leader Trevor Sargent said in his speech to the conference.
Their TDs and councillors reiterated time and again that government was not just a possibility, but a desire. Once in government their policies would not only benefit society but business and the individual as well, they insisted.
From a party whose roots are based in a loose alignment of autonomous local groups in the 1980s, the Greens are now firmly established.
The party chairman John Gormley said that they had become "far more streamlined, far more professional", although the party still has to consolidate its current political position.
Although it returned with six TDs in the 2002, its local and European electoral performance was poor. At present it is more at risk of losing rather than gaining Dáil seats with Ciarán Cuffe and Eamon Ryan quite vulnerable to a Fine Gael upswing.
There appears to be considerable realism within the Greens about the potential limits of the party imposed by its traditional historical approach.
It was the party's deputy leader, Mary White, who perhaps best summed up what the party has to do if it is to be more effective and more appealing to the electorate.
"Above all we must grow beyond the roots that our party has had as a protest movement," she said. The party needed a wider appeal outside its traditional support base. She also suggested that the party would have to compromise if it was to grow.
"The Irish people will never exchange their newly won prosperity for a dream of environmental purity. And a party which advocated that they should do so would never have more than a handful of councillors and TDs."
And throughout the weekend, the party went out of its way to court people who might not be natural Green voters. Green TD and enterprise spokesman Eamon Ryan laid out the party's stall for business.
He outlined why their policies would not make doing business more expensive in Ireland but instead make businesses more competitive. The party was pro-enterprise and he went as far as to complement the vision of a former Fianna Fáil taoiseach, Seán Lemass.
The policies that were outlined on various issues over the weekend have emerged from the so-called Butikofer project, named after the German Green with ministerial experience, Reinhard Butikofer. Last year he told the party that if it was to get into government, it would first have to set out a series of realistic and attainable policy goals.
And perhaps the "big idea" to emerge from this so far was that of a parenting tax credit or payment of €150 per month, outlined by party finance spokesman Dan Boyle in his proposals for tax reform, which also included scrapping many tax reliefs. This new payment per child is one the party is no doubt hoping will have wide appeal to voters.
Mr Boyle was also at pains to stress that the Greens are not a "high taxation" party. "We will tax smarter," he said.
At the same time as the "Greens can govern" message was being sold, the party was also engaged in a debate on coalition and whether the party should be open to a pre-election pact.
While Eamon Ryan and a number other delegates argued that the party should leave open the option of such an agreement, they were in a very small minority.
The overwhelming majority of delegates wanted to rule out any pre-election alliance, with Dublin West TD Paul Gogarty putting forward the most passionate argument against any alliance. The party was much more likely to ensure its policies were adopted if it came to negotiating table after an election. By standing alone it would deliver "a strong mandate to negotiate for government".
The reasons for ruling out a pre-election pact may well be cogent, but the debate raised what is for some observers a fundamental question about the Green's willingness or ability to compromise on some policies in order to get others implemented.
During the debate, some speakers, such as councillor Chris O'Leary from Cork, indicated he was against compromising on Green principles in order to get into Government. He said he would prefer supporting a minority government "as opposed to selling out for the scraps from the table".
The European constitution is also an issue where the willingness to compromise is at the heart of the party's internal debate.
The question is whether the party can decide to support the document even though most party members have serious concerns about aspects of it, especially in relation to defence.
Their concerns about aspects the Nice treaty led the party to campaign against it, even though the party supported much of what was contained in the agreement.
When Eamon Ryan stood to advocate leaving open the possibility of a pact, he was addressing that wider issue for the Greens. He spoke about the need for the party to face up to the "difficult business of compromise" if it is to enter government.
From the deliberations in Cork at the weekend, facing up to the difficult business of compromise is some way off for the Green party.