New political party and alliance to emerge in new year

Two prominent Independent Dáil deputies are working separately to set up a new political party and a new alliance of non-aligned TDs and councillors in early 2015.

Leading member of the Reform Alliance Lucinda Creighton is working on establishing a new right-of-centre party.

Meanwhile, Dublin South TD Shane Ross has said plans are reaching an advanced stage for the formation of a new independent alliance comprised of at least four deputies as well as dozens of non-party councillors drawn from across the 40 constituencies.

Ms Creighton has said while she has great regard for Mr Ross, she believed the Irish people had the right to expect and demand a clear political and economic vision before the next election.

“I don’t believe any loose alliance can deliver that,” she said.

Mr Ross, a guest on RTÉ’s The Saturday Night Show, also confirmed Independent TDs Finian McGrath, John Halligan and Stephen Donnelly were interested in the new undertaking.

The Irish Times has previously reported he had written to all 193 non-party county and city councillors on the issue.

Mr Ross said many of these were willing to join his “grass roots” and “bottom-up” group.

He eschewed all political parties, he said, claiming his alliance would bring power back to the people.

The group would agree on a programme that would “put an end to the old politics”, he added. This would contain “certain principles that are non-negotiable” in return for supporting the governing party in government.

It would then support the party on big agreed issues. However, on issues that did not form part of that core, the whip would not be applied and TDs would be free to vote against any government proposal they disagreed with.

Similar experiments have been tried in other jurisdictions, especially California, with very mixed results.

Mr Ross argued the plan involved direct democracy, and there was nothing wrong with legislation being defeated in the Dáil, forcing re-evaluations.

Ms Creighton, a former Fine Gael TD, said she had no desire to align herself with Independents coming from a hard-left and Workers’ Party background. Mr Halligan was a former member of that party.

“Any new group should have a clear and coherent economic vision,” she said in an emailed response to questions from The Irish Times.

“From my perspective, this must be about driving entrepreneurism and ending the tax discrimination against the self-employed.

“We need a new sustainable economic vision for Ireland which is based on enterprise.

“I for one am not willing to align with socialist economic doctrine which is already on offer from Sinn Féin, the AAA, People Before Profit, Labour, the Socialist Party and a range of left-wing Independents.”