Eamon Ryan has branded Leo Varadkar and Eoghan Murphy the money-mad “Gordon Gekkos” of Irish politics.
Gekko was the lead character played by Michael Douglas in the film Wall Street, which exposed the horrible underbelly of the stockbroking scene in New York in the 1980s.
His famous catchphrase was “greed is good” and the Green Party leader drew comparison with the Government’s housing policy.
He said: “Fine Gael are still caught in a 1980s, yellow braces, Gordon Gekko, greed is good, market knows best view of the world and it’s not working in housing.”
Mr Ryan made the scathing comparison with the Taoiseach and his Housing Minister as evidence of the Government’s policies.
He said their approach in believing market and the private sector can solve the crisis in housing is completely outdated.
Mr Ryan was speaking to the Irish Mirror in an exclusive interview at the Green Party pre-Dail think-in at the Metropole Hotel in Cork.
He also set his price for anybody who wants the party’s support in the next Government.
The leader put all his potential suitors on notice that if the Greens win at least six seats in the Dail, the cost of their support will be two places at the Cabinet table.
But it was his put-down of his potential future Government colleagues that was particularly cutting.
Referring to Fine Gael policy, Mr Ryan added: “It’s never going to work with housing in this country I don’t think.
“Either because it leads to a bubble or to an exploitative situation where either landowners or developers are making all the money. So I think it has to change.
“The problem is their underlying philosophy. The reason they’ve got stuck on this is because they are stuck in an old 1980s, 1990s, market knows best model and it’s not working and it needs to change.
“Eoghan Murphy, and the Taoiseach too, are exemplary models of that.
“They’re both of the same world view and they’re entitled to it, but I think Irish people, and in particular younger people, when they look at what’s happening in the housing market will deliver a verdict on their approach in the nextelection.”
The buoyant Greens are on a high after quadrupling councillor numbers to 57 at the summer’s local elections.
They also got two MEPs elected to the European Parliament in poll-topper Ciaran Cuffe and Senator Grace O’Sullivan.
They are now targeting the upcoming four Dail by-elections and Seanad by-election arising because of sitting national politicians winning seats in Brussels.
And after that all eyes will be on the General Election, which Mr Varadkar revealed last week would take place next May, possibly on the 20th.
Mr Ryan is ambitious and sees six seats as the minimum General Election target.
He added: “We want to get at least six seats and I say six seats because with six in the past we got two Cabinet positions with that. And you need two to be able to tic-tac. That would have to be part of the deal.
“You also represent typically one in 20 voters, so there’s a significant section of Irish society that says, ‘We want to do this’.
“And also with the senators you’ve got a team in the Oireachtas, it means you can cover every Government department, so you’ve got the whole of government approach.
“We’re running candidates in every constituency and we may have a chance of more than six.
“On a great day we could double that.
“We’re not counting our chickens, but we have quality candidates.”
The Green Party leader’s goals are short-term.
He said there is so much to do that he can’t afford to look much beyond the immediate.
However, even though many of the old guard who last soldiered in Government with Fianna Fail 10 years are gone, Mr Ryan intends staying around for some time yet.
He added: “There are a lot of younger heads around alright, but I’m not thinking about anything much beyond the next election.”
