“A fantastic day for all pet lovers”, read the slogan on the billboard outside the RDS yesterday morning. The annual Pet Expo was taking place in the RDS main hall.

It really was a fantastic day for animal lovers in the adjacent RDS Concert Hall as well. The hall was home to over 600 Green Party members for their special convention on the revised programme for government and the proposed Nama legislation.

Shortly after 11.30am they were given copies of the new 40-page programme for government. Despite speculation last week that the government could fall if Green members did not get their way on animal rights, it turned out many of the Greens’ wishes came true.

The government has agreed to phase out fur farming in three years and end stag hunting. They will also replace the culling of badgers with more humane methods of control but there was no mention of hare coursing.

While a stag hunt is a favoured destination for any self-respecting protester, Green Party conferences have grown in the protester popularity stakes in the two-and-a-half years since they got into bed with Fianna Fáil.

Yesterday was no different, and even though there was not a large volume of protesters, every group with a grievance seemed to send a few representatives to the RDS for the day.

Among the groups present were the People Before Profit Alliance, Éirigí, the Union of Students of Ireland, Shell to Sea campaigners and a SIPTU group representing Dublin dockers.

The convention was momentarily disrupted by a man calling for educational support for his child who has special needs. He got to the door of the convention hall where the meeting had just commenced around 11.30am, but he was stopped by gardaí and escorted off the premises. There were distressing scenes as James McDonagh’s daughter Angel screamed and cried with terror as he spoke to a scrum of journalists and photographers.

McDonagh said, “I walked in with my daughter because she has been out of school for a year and no school will accept her because she has special needs and because of government cutbacks.

“This government is failing my child. She needs occupational therapy, speech therapy and physiotherapy but she is not getting any of those and this Green Party is on about voting for Nama and giving money to banks when my daughter has no school.”

Despite the Greens reluctantly giving a ‘green light’ to the controversial bad bank plan, there is much anger in the party over Nama.

“Nama will be a pair of handcuffs on our nation,” said party member Michael Connolly. “In the future, people will look back and they won’t be blaming Fianna Fáil. If a vicious dog bites you, you might blame the dog but you will look to who is holding the lead. That will be us and they will look back to what we did now and determine the blame.”

Speaking about the revised programme, party leader John Gormley told journalists: “We have achieved a great deal in the area of education … I think we got a hell of a lot, even on the smaller items. This is a win-win for the Green Party.”

There were jubilant scenes when party chairman Dan Boyle announced the result at 6.55pm yesterday evening.

Gormley said, “I thank you sincerely for the overwhelming endorsement you have given to the Green Party for this programme … There will be no resigning from this programme for government. It has to be implemented.”

He thanked the members and gave a special mention to the Young Greens for successfully campaigning for no third levels fees, Trevor Sargent for his campaign against planning corruption and one of the loudest cheers of the day was reserved for his comments on the banning of political corporate donations.