Green Party politicians are still considering whether to join the new coalition Government.
But relations between the party and its prospective new partners in government, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, took a serious dive yesterday.
A war of words erupted between Fine Gael deputy leader, Simon Coveney, and Green deputy leader, Catherine Martin.
Mr Coveney said in an interview in the Irish Examiner that he would not “put Ireland's farmers out of business” by imposing an annual 7% carbon emissions cut.
And then he went as far as to say he would prefer another general election to rolling over for the Greens.
He said: “Let’s be very clear on that, we are not going to sign up to a programme for government that decimates rural Ireland.
“That’ll never happen, even if that means another election.”
The 7% cut is a red line issue for the Greens.
Ms Martin responded angrily on RTE’s Today with Seán O’Rourke show, describing Mr Coveney’s comments as “shocking” and “disturbing.”
The divided views reflect how far apart the two sides still are from reaching an agreement to do business together in government.
The 12 TDs and 2 senators of the Greens parliamentary party met again - by teleconference - last night to discuss the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael offer to form a new government.
This was the third day in a row the party met since a joint letter from FF/FG leaders, Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar, was sent to Green leader, Eamon Ryan, on Tuesday night.
And the conscientious public reps were still divided on whether to take the leap into power.
There are many in the party who are believed to be wrestling with their consciences over joining up with the two larger parties.
The last time the Greens entered government in 2007 with 6 TDs, they left four years later a broken party and were wiped out at the next general election, losing all their seats.
So this time the Green party is wary of re-entering a government situation where they are there just to make up the numbers.
It has led to deep debate among the parliamentary party members about taking the next step and this bubbled to the surface through Ms Martin’s comments yesterday.
She said: “This is not the Green Party's 7%, this target comes from the Paris Agreement, unless we reduce by 7% we are facing catastrophic damage to the planet.
“It was Fine Gael who signed this, it's disturbing, alarm bells are ringing.”
Ms Martin added: “Let's be honest, we had farmers protesting on the streets for the last six months, they have more to fear from Fine Gael than the Green Party, they were protesting Fine Gael, not the Greens.”
