Candidates battle for title of greener than green

This was an Irish political seminar like no other — with one wannabe politician selling himself to voters as somebody "who has driven several Prius", uses Airtricity, and has worked with Amazonian tribes to help them access legal aid.

The candidate in question is Jan Van de Ven, the leader of Direct Democracy, who, like the two people sitting beside him, is seeking to represent the sprawling constituency of Ireland South as a member of the European Parliament.

One of the other two candidates was a representative of a (somewhat) more mainstream party: Kieran Hartley, formerly of Rethink Pylons and now of Fianna Fáil. Hartley used his opening comments to outline how he was “one of the first in the country to drive a bioethanol car”.