NI Assembly election: Green Party targeting three seats

Green Party leader in Northern Ireland leader Steven Agnew has said he will be disappointed if his party does not win three seats in May's assembly election.

Speaking at his party's manifesto launch, Mr Agnew said their vote had risen in recent elections and he was confident at success.

"We are confident. We are right to be confident," he said.

"We have a trebling of our membership, a doubling of our vote."

At the last assembly elections in 2011, Mr Agnew was the only Green Party candidate to be elected to Stormont.

Launching his party's 19-page manifesto entitled 'Zero Waste Strategy for Northern Ireland' the Green Party leader said a vote for the Greens was about bringing an end to "a waste of money, time and opportunities at Stormont" .

The manifesto contains a series of commitments which the party says will make Northern Ireland a better place to live.

On education, the party wants to introduce a flexible starting age in primary schools and the Greens oppose any rise in tuition fees.

The Green Party is standing candidates in all 18 Northern Ireland constituencies

The party also intends to bring forward legislation for equal marriage in the next assembly and would like to see the voting age lowered to 16.

They want to see 50,000 homes insulated every year and claim this move would create 15,000 jobs.

In the next assembly, Mr Agnew said his party will bring forward a climate change bill and campaign for a reformed living wage. The party also wants the age of criminal responsibility to be raised and a reform of libel laws.

The Green Party is standing candidates in all 18 constituencies.