Green Party leader John Gormley has acknowledged his party is fighting for its political future but he does not think it is facing oblivion.
Mr Gormley said the Green Party was “here for the very long haul” and that it would continue to pursue its beliefs even if its representation in the Dail fell after the general election.
“We really do believe in what we are doing and it’s not a case of comparing us to the PDs - we’re here for the very long haul," he said. "We had a vision of what Irish society could become. We’re not going to give that up now."
The Green Party won six seats in the last Dail but the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll put it on just 1 per cent.
Mr Gormley said voter attitudes toward the party had "changed markedly" in the last week.
"The first week there was resistance," he told RTE Morning Ireland. "Last week we found people we committing to number one votes and we have to keep that momentum up."
Mr Gormley said the Greens faced a difficult challenge and that each of the seats it was targeting was the final seat in a constituency. He said voters were beginning to see the Greens had "behaved responsibly in government" by demanding a new Central Bank governor and Financial Regulator.
"We did put the national interest first and it's up to us to communicate that over the last two weeks and if we can do that we will be in with a shout," he said.
Mr Gormley said he would like to see a change to how Irish politics works. He described some of the reform proposals put forward by other parties as "opportunistic bandwagoning".
“The Dáil is where we need the transformation, the Seanad does need to be slimmed down, it does need to be radically reformed but the idea of scrapping it willy nilly doesn’t make sense to us,” he said.
When questioned about the possible consequences of the bank guarantee scheme introduced in September 2008, Mr Gormley said this would have happened regardless.
"[There would have been] no difference had any other government been in place because they would have got exactly the same advice."
