Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman has said the Green tide is rising again, pointing to the recent by-election win for Hannah Spencer in the Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton, which he said meant hope could win.
Mr O'Gorman was delivering a speech at the Green Party's annual conference in Kilkenny.
He said he hopes his own party can build on this momentum in the forthcoming by elections in which it is fielding candidates in Dublin Central and Galway West.
However, following the loss of 11 of its 12 seats in the last general election, he admits the party has a lot of rebuilding to do.
"People also see what this government is doing. They see their retreat from key environmental issues, and people didn't vote for that.
"None of that was set out in the manifestos of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the last General Election, they didn't say they were going to roll back on the progress that was made.
"And I think in the two by-elections coming up, people will reflect on that, reflect on maybe giving those issues greater prominence by putting more green voices in the Dáil," he told RTÉ.
Senator Malcolm Noonan, who is from Kilkenny said he was delighted with the turnout of more than 300 delegates for this convention.
He said: "We're very much focused on rebuilding our project, from the grassroots back up. We were here before, back in 2011 and we did it again. And we think we're needed in Irish politics."
He said there had been a rollback by the Government on issues over climate and nature and water quality.
In his speech, Roderic O’Gorman accused the current government of gas-lighting the electorate over what he said were failed general election promises including in the area of disability services and the delivery of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) in schools.
He said to win in the future in Ireland, the party had a new strategic plan including winning back seats on councils, in the Dáil and in Europe.
He said the party's message to voters needed to be sharpened. Its membership also needed to be grown and fundraising improved.
Mr O'Gorman said politics in 2026 had become one of reaction and he accused the government of playing to it most conservative instincts, whilst he said it sought to "mask its inaction, its lack of direction, by grand, performative gestures".
Moves to protect children online a 'woolly commitment' - O'Gorman
He said moves to protect under 16s online by banning their access to social media was only a "woolly commitment'" to lobby the EU for action on the issue, whilst running a pilot programme.
He said this was kicking the can down the road.
He said government claims to show action to address pressures on the migration system also involved scapegoating vulnerable people whilst making life harder for those who had been granted status here to reunite with their families.
Mr O'Gorman said the elephant in the room was an over-reliance on private accommodation providers and that his party had started a roadmap out of this which hadn’t been continued.
"This government has a massive majority and yet it has done nothing over the last 14 months. It has a record as a 'do nothing' government," he said.
"They’ve raided he climate nature fund that was put aside to deal with some of those big challenges that are facing our country in terms of supporting nature and making changes for climate."
He said reducing emissions would save the country money in the long-term as missed climate targets would have to be paid for."
He said the Government claimed it wanted a two-state solution on Palestine but had deployed every delaying tactic possible over the delivery of the Occupied Territories Bill.
On the US President Donald Trump, he said his policies were having an impact on policies across Europe and here in Ireland.
"Like most peddlers of easy solutions to difficult problems, they have sought to devalue and dehumanise people instead of offering anything that will improve people’s lives," he said.
Asked about today’s bombing attacks by the US in Iran, he said whilst the regime there had killed thousands of its own citizens, "Trump isn’t bombing Iran out of concern for Iranians. He’s bombing Iran to try to distract from the big issues, the political push back he is seeing on cost of living in the United States and indeed as a distraction to the ongoing Epstein scandal."
In her speech the party’s newly elected deputy leader Hazel Chu said that whilst Ireland was now wealthier than ever, daily life was becoming "more congested, more expensive and more uncertain".
She said the Green Party wanted to deliver more public transport to improve this with projects including the Waterford-Wexford rail line, the Finglas Luas and Galway BusConnects.
She also said safe cycle routes were not about culture wars but about giving young people freedom to travel. She said the party needed to rebuild so that more of these policies could be implemented.
Many of the delegates and party members said the Green Party was interested in re-entering government again, but only if more of its policies could be implemented in a future programme for government.
Donnacha Geoghegan, a Green Party member from Dublin North-west (pictured) attended today's convention.
He said: "I think the mood is very good actually, because we're less focused on the losses and more on the wins that we saw over in the UK there, and where the Greens are making a comeback there. And we think we can replicate that as well."
Asked about the party leader’s view that its message to voters needs to be sharpened, he said: "It depends on what way you approach it. If you approach it directly from talking about climate change and the environment, some people will tune out. But if you focus on issues that affect them directly, such as quality of life, air quality, noise and pollution in general, and just the ways that green policies can improve their lives, around housing, I think that'll draw people in."
Pace Borza Butterly from Dublin Bay South said she felt the party had been unfairly blamed following its last spell in government.
"There was obviously a lot of disappointments after the last election. I think the Greens got blamed for a lot of things that really weren't necessarily theirs but maybe government policies that were implemented across the three various parties that were in government. But we got the blame for a lot of it.
"So, there was huge disappointment. I remember lots of members texting, 'it's hard to be Green!' because change can be difficult for people to digest."
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