The Green Party conference in Cork has voted by an overwhelming majority against joining any pre-election pact with other parties.
Delegates accepted a motion ruling out an electoral alliance, saying it would only open negotiations about forming a Government after an election.
Proposing the motion, Cork South Central TD Dan Boyle said it was vital that the Green Party was seen as distinct.
Dublin South TD, Eamon Ryan, proposed an alternative motion calling for the option of entering an alliance to be kept open.
He argued it would give the party the chance to present an alternative Government.
But delegates voted by a margin of five to one to rule out such an option.
Boyle defends Greens' economic policies
The Green Party finance spokesperson, Dan Boyle, has strongly defended his party's economic policies, stressing that it would only introduce new taxes if others were reduced.
Mr Boyle said that in eight years in power the current Government had wasted a full year's expenditure through economic mismanagement and incompetence.
He proposed a new childcare tax credit that would be payable as cash if the parent concerned was not in paid employment.
He told delegates that not only could the Greens do better on the economy, but in terms of the long term they could hardly do any worse than the Government parties.
Earlier, the conference heard strong criticism of the Government's decision last year to scrap its plans for a carbon tax.
The party's enterprise spokesperson, Eamon Ryan, said that people would look back at the decision in years to come and say it was wrong.
