The Green party is preparing a list of stringent demands to table at next month's review of the programme for government.
Senior figures have warned Fianna Fail not to take the party's future support for granted as they prepare to demand the reversal of recent education cuts, the restoration of the Christmas social-welfare bonus, and investment programmes in public transport, particularly buses.
They also want significant investment in the creation of "green jobs" - new employment in manufacturing and R&D for the production of wind, wave and solar energy.
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The Greens are also seeking the appointment of a third senator, a ban on corporate donations to political parties, and a commitment to a referendum on children's rights, following last month's publication of the Ryan report on child abuse in religious-run homes.
John Gormley's party will respond to voters' rejection at the recent elections - their county- and city-council numbers fell from 17 to three - by flexing more muscle at cabinet and seeking to put a greener stamp on future government policy.
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Dan Boyle, chairman of its parliamentary party, warned: "Green input into government economic policies should be and will be more pronounced. That is how we will be approaching the negotiations."
Paul Gogarty, the Dublin West TD, said there was no point in remaining in government if the Greens could not influence and implement policy. "Fianna Fail need to realise that we are mad enough to do something stupid like walking out of government if we don't get what we want," he said.
Another senior Green source said: "These negotiations are going to be hard - a lot harder than Brian Cowen thinks."
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Pat Carey, the government chief whip, said: "The review will start from the normal \ meetings between John Gormley and the taoiseach and flow from there. It will be a dialogue, a conversation between partners in government who are working well together. It is not a question of drawing up a new programme for government, it is simply reviewing what already exists."
But Gogarty said the review would be conducted by formal inter-party teams of negotiators, and would be similar to the talks which led to the party entering government. He said the party leadership would report back to a full membership conference in September.
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Negotiators will also press the case for an extra Green senator to be elected with Fianna Fail support to one of the two Seanad vacancies created by last week's election of Alan
Kelly, a Labour senator, to the European Parliament, and the earlier death of Tony Kett.
The party's TDs and senators will finalise their priorities for next month's government review in a series of meetings with councillors and defeated candidates over the coming weeks. They will also organise a national gathering of the party's 2,000 members.
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It is clear that a priority for the Greens will be a reversal of up to ¤40m in education cuts imposed after the April budget.
The party also hopes that a carbon tax and a "broadening of the tax base away from its reliance on PAYE" will be central elements. It will seek assurances about the continuation of the Metro North rail link to Dublin Airport.
Asked what chances the request for a third senator had of flying, a senior Fianna Fail government figure said: "About as much as the corncrake."
But Boyle said he did not want Fianna Fail to assume it could rely on Green votes for its Seanad candidates. "I don't want Fianna Fail to have expectations that they are going to get two new senators on the basis that the Greens will vote for them."