Green Party MEP Ciaran Cuffe has said the "bar is set very high" for Eamon Ryan if he ends up looking to secure backing from the rest of the party for any deal on a new government.
Earlier this week, the Greens wrote to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil with key targets for any negotiations on forming a government.
They also asked the party leaders 17 specific questions, following on from the framework document sent to smaller parties about a potential coalition.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh, Mr Cuffe said the questions put to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are to determine if they're serious about forming a 'transformative' government or whether it will be business as usual.
He said: “Obviously within the Green group… there’s views on different sides on whether we should go in or not.
“[FF and FG] may come back with some serious responses to those questions, or they may not."
Mr Cuffe stressed that there are people from "many different backgrounds" involved in the Green Party.
He observed: "I think if we went into Government in the morning there’d be people who’d tear up their membership cards… but if we stayed out we’d get exactly the same situation.
“I guess if you were to characterise the Green voter, I would say they’d mainly be on the centre-left - so there is a contradiction with sitting down with two parties who I would see as being on the centre-right.
“I think we would have preferred a broad left of centre alliance, perhaps led by Sinn Féin… but that simply hasn’t been the case… We have to work with what’s out there."
'Bar is set very high'
Mr Cuffe said that while there is enthusiasm within the party for involvement in the decision-making aspects of politics, there's also a high bar to clear before any deal is done.
He explained: “Two-thirds of the members who come to a special meeting - or, I guess in this case, who would vote online presumably - would have to approve the deal.
"The bar is set very high: in the first instance, [Eamon Ryan] would have to bring the parliamentary party with him… and in the second instance he would have to bring a large majority of those members."
Elsewhere, the Dublin MEP said the prospect of Eamon Ryan serving as Taoiseach in a 'rotating Taoiseach' coalition arrangement is 'not really a discussion we've had' within the parliamentary party.
He suggested: “That whole discussion is completely distracting from what the Green stands for.
"We stand for positive changes in people’s lives, and we’ve never been particularly enamoured of those senior leadership roles.
“I think what would be ten times more important would be getting real commitments on improvements in public health, public housing, public transport… the kind of shift we’ve seen over the last two months of recognising that when the State acts well it can be of huge benefit to the entire population. We want to see more of that.
He argued that the State needs "to be strong and provide the basic services that citizens require", but the country also needs the "creativity and imagination" of the private sector.
However, he suggested there has been a 'retreat' away from the State's role in recent years by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
