Green Party Chairman Dan Boyle has renewed his call for a review of the Programme for Government, saying people are demanding a new sense of direction from the Government.
Mr Boyle said mistakes have been made and the Government has avoided difficult decisions in areas such as public service reform, which have to be looked at.
The Green Party is also hoping that cutbacks imposed by the Government in education will be reversed under the review.
He said they were most uncomfortable with these cuts, saying they were damaging and would have serious consequences in the medium to long-term.
Senator Boyle, who is a candidate in the European Parliament elections in the South constituency, said he was confident that reflecting the public mood could reverse some decisions.
He said he was encouraged by the response of the Taoiseach and was expecting hard negotiations on the review of the Programme for Government, but said difficult and unpopular choices would still have to be made.
Senator Boyle said if the Green Party wanted to be taken seriously it would have to take responsibility for policies pursued while it was in Government.
Errors had been made and these needed to be corrected, he said.
Local issues
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said Opposition parties are drawing issues that are not local into the local election campaign.
He said the election should be decided on local issues.
Reacting to the comments made by Dan Boyle on RTÉ Radio today, Brian Cowen said Senator Boyle is in the midst of a campaign.
Asked why he would not say sorry for the mistakes made by Government, he said the country is where it is because of a global downturn.
He said he takes full responsibility for the decisions he made, which were made using the best information available at that time.
Mr Cowen said like all other countries Ireland is contending with the biggest world recession in 40 years.
The Taoiseach said the Opposition was criticising him as Finance Minister for not spending enough money.
He said that when people suggest Fianna Fáil blew the boom he only has to look at the major improvements of the past ten years to see what Fianna Fáil in Government has done.
Mr Cowen said it is hard to maintain the level of employment we had in the past. He said that people should ask who is best placed to take us through the current difficulties.
Mr Cowen was speaking as the party launched its local election manifesto in Dublin.
