FF leader wants to join forces with FG rebel group

The Fianna Fáil leader said that he would join forces with the Reform Alliance to campaign for a No vote in the Seanad referendum.

Micheál Martin is welcoming the Fine Gael splinter group's decision to advocate for a rejection of the abolition proposal.

Former Junior Minister Lucinda Creighton, a member of the grouping, said that the campaign to date has been marked with cheap slogans.

Deputy Martin says the move by the Reform Alliance is significant.

"Many of them are in Government - Lucinda herself served in Government - and the big criticism of the Government is that there was no reform of the Dáil in the last two and a half years, or indeed of the entire system of government which everybody signed up to," he said.

"So now we're getting from somebody who was inside - if you like - telling us: 'Look, if you get rid of the Senate you're going to suppress dissenting voices even more' and you're going to have less interdependent voices."