TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen and Green Party leader John Gormley yesterday opened formal talks on a new programme for government that will determine the future of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Coalition.
The two men met for almost an hour yesterday, according to a Green Party spokesman who confirmed that a document outlining the party's position had been handed over to the Taoiseach.
Discussions between officials of both parties had already taken place in advance of yesterday's meeting and background documents had been exchanged in recent weeks. Detailed engagement on the nuts and bolts of the new programme will not begin until after the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
Both parties are hoping that the talks will be concluded in less than a week so that the programme can be put to a Green Party convention which is scheduled on October 10th. The programme will have to be approved by two-thirds of the members at that convention, otherwise the party will be obliged to pull out of Coalition.
Green Party sources say there are four major themes in the document handed over yesterday. The first theme is headed Priorities for the Green Economy and Jobs.
It is not expected that there will be any great difficulty in getting agreement on this segment of the programme as there is already agreement between the Coalition parties that the "smart economy" should be the cornerstone of the policy to tackle the economic crisis.
The second major theme of the document is education and agreement on this could prove more difficult as the Greens have already demanded that most of the education cuts in last year's budget be reversed and have expressed strong opposition to any move to reintroduce third-level fees.
There could also be difficulty on the third theme of the document which is equality. The Greens want the Equality Authority to be given more resources with much greater priority being given by Government to the whole area.
The other major theme of the Green document is political reform. Part of the Green political reform agenda would outlaw corporate donations to political parties.
The Green Party negotiators in the talks will be Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan, Mary White TD and Senator Dan Boyle.