Party sets out terms for its support in a coalition after election

A lengthy list of policy demands, including State-financed childcare, and a place at the Cabinet table will form part of the Green Party's price for entry into a coalition after next year's general election.

The Greens elected Dublin North TD Mr Trevor Sargent as the party's first-ever leader in its 20-year history, during a special delegate conference in Kilkenny on Saturday.

Under the complicated "preferendum" rules employed, Mr Sargent won 402 of the 465 votes available to him, or 86%. The defeated candidates, Cllr Paul Gogarty from Dublin and Mr Niall O'Brolchβin tied with 239 votes each.

Carlow/Kilkenny general election candidate, Cllr Mary White from Borris, Co Carlow, who is the party's environment spokesperson, was elected unopposed as deputy leader.

In his victory speech, Mr Sargent delivered a list of policy demands that will have to be conceded by either Fianna Fβil or Fine Gael if they want the Greens' support in a coalition.

These include tax credits to cover the cost of childcare, better pre-school facilities, improved planning laws, more emphasis on solar and wind energy and constitutional protection for Ireland's neutrality.

In addition, taxes would be shifted away from income and on to energy, investments and business. "We would increase corporation tax to 17.5%, which would still be very competitive," Mr Sargent said.

Delegates offered other ideas, including a demand that Coillte stays in State hands and for the construction of a railway line down the length of the western seaboard from Derry, during a debate on coalition options.

Final decisions will be left until after the general election. A few delegates, including Wicklow Cllr Ms Deirdre de Burca, emphasised that the Greens could influence politics by staying outside coalition.

Efforts will be made to forge loose alliances between party candidates and protest groups, including those currently blocking National Roads Authority projects, in the run-up to the election, which is now expected to take place in May.

The Government was frequently attacked for having wasted the last few bountiful years. "We had a bulging Exchequer. Now, the coffers are quickly leaking away," said the deputy leader, Ms White.

Dublin MEP Ms Patricia McKenna, who decided not to accept a nomination to run for the leadership, was the only senior Green figure to miss the event. She is with a European Parliament delegation in Indonesia.

Delegates supported Mr Sargent's view that the Government should not have offered the US access to Irish airports and airspace without Dβil approval, and without knowing its intentions.

"Expensive military attacks failed to end the tyranny in Iraq in 1991. Ten years later, yet another Fianna Fβil/Progressive Democrat Coalition is more inclined to take directions from the White House than it is from Leinster House."

Condemning the US attacks, Mr Sargent said: "The perpetrators of these and other atrocities must be brought to justice and we will support all legitimate means to bring this about. We will resist, however, any temptation to fight terror with terror, which would result in innocent people dying if military attacks are launched at 5.3 million famished and frightened civilians in Afghanistan."