GREEN Party leader John Gormley last night accused Fine Gael of continuing to take donations from developers and engaging in a "last-ditch effort" to ram through irresponsible zoning decisions before his new Planning Bill becomes law.

In his speech to the party's annual convention in Waterford, the environment minister said that, in the absence of the Greens on local councils, planning problems "have raised their ugly heads again".

He said there were councillors up and down the country who knew that the new Planning Bill would bring an end to unfettered and irresponsible rezoning and were rushing to get through proposals before it was enacted.

"The Labour Party councillors have behaved, for the most part, responsibly – but not so Fine Gael councillors. Fine Gael is still receiving contributions from the developers, still rezoning, and still has not woken up to the new reality and still believe that this sort of mad over-zoning stimulates the economy. Well it doesn't," Gormley said.

He added that Enda Kenny should take "these reprobates to task" and tell them that "enough is enough".

Gormley described being in government as being "an enormous privilege" but also "tough and gruelling", and insisted the Greens would still have gone into government even if they had known the recession was as tough as it has turned out to be.

"We didn't enter blindly into this. Of all the parties, we knew it was not going to be plain sailing," he said.

It was an opportunity to implement the policies the country needed, but political parties hadn't implemented because they "didn't have the political will and courage to do so".

The Greens were in politics, Gormley told delegates, "to get things done, to do the right thing and, not just to do things better than they were before, but to do things that have not been done before".

Quoting the Samuel Beckett character from The Unnamble, he admitted there were times when they had said: 'I can't go on, I'll go on'. But despite governing during the greatest economic recession that this country had ever seen, "we have stood solid and we have taken the blows and suffered electoral losses".

Government is "a huge reality check" that "hits you like a sledgehammer", while opposition was for "talkers and theorists" where you can be "all things to all men and women... live in denial and achieve absolutely nothing". Gormley described as "barmy" the opposition's solution to the banking crisis of defaulting on senior bondholders. It had been criticised by three former Fine Gael leaders, he noted.

Gormley promised to deliver political reform via the directly elected mayors, to get rid of corporate donations to political parties and transform the energy and waste sectors. He said the Greens will also have introduced more equality for gay and lesbian people and protected "our habitats and our landscapes".

While the tide may have ebbed for both the economy and the Greens, Gormley predicted this "will change".

"History shows that we have outlasted all other small parties in this state... No one should ever underestimate the resilience and determination of the Green Party. We will go on. We will fight for the fairer and more equal society.

"We will turn it around and we will always, always do the right thing".

GREEN Party leader John Gormley last night accused Fine Gael of continuing to take donations from developers and engaging in a "last-ditch effort" to ram through irresponsible zoning decisions before his new Planning Bill becomes law.

In his speech to the party's annual convention in Waterford, the environment minister said that, in the absence of the Greens on local councils, planning problems "have raised their ugly heads again".

He said there were councillors up and down the country who knew that the new Planning Bill would bring an end to unfettered and irresponsible rezoning and were rushing to get through proposals before it was enacted.

"The Labour Party councillors have behaved, for the most part, responsibly – but not so Fine Gael councillors. Fine Gael is still receiving contributions from the developers, still rezoning, and still has not woken up to the new reality and still believe that this sort of mad over-zoning stimulates the economy. Well it doesn't," Gormley said.

He added that Enda Kenny should take "these reprobates to task" and tell them that "enough is enough".

Gormley described being in government as being "an enormous privilege" but also "tough and gruelling", and insisted the Greens would still have gone into government even if they had known the recession was as tough as it has turned out to be.

"We didn't enter blindly into this. Of all the parties, we knew it was not going to be plain sailing," he said.

It was an opportunity to implement the policies the country needed, but political parties hadn't implemented because they "didn't have the political will and courage to do so".

The Greens were in politics, Gormley told delegates, "to get things done, to do the right thing and, not just to do things better than they were before, but to do things that have not been done before".

Quoting the Samuel Beckett character from The Unnamble, he admitted there were times when they had said: 'I can't go on, I'll go on'. But despite governing during the greatest economic recession that this country had ever seen, "we have stood solid and we have taken the blows and suffered electoral losses".

Government is "a huge reality check" that "hits you like a sledgehammer", while opposition was for "talkers and theorists" where you can be "all things to all men and women... live in denial and achieve absolutely nothing". Gormley described as "barmy" the opposition's solution to the banking crisis of defaulting on senior bondholders. It had been criticised by three former Fine Gael leaders, he noted.

Gormley promised to deliver political reform via the directly elected mayors, to get rid of corporate donations to political parties and transform the energy and waste sectors. He said the Greens will also have introduced more equality for gay and lesbian people and protected "our habitats and our landscapes".

While the tide may have ebbed for both the economy and the Greens, Gormley predicted this "will change".

In addition, he said those guilty of causing the banking crisis must be brought to justice.

"Doing the right thing also means bringing to justice those who are guilty of causing the banking crisis," he said.

"We want to tackle the problem of white-collar criminality, because there cannot be one law for the rich and one law for the poor. Or, to put it another way, one law for those in authority and one law for the less powerful and weaker elements of our society."