New rural party expects more TDs to join soon

Cork South West TD Michael Collins says established parties don't understand rural Ireland 

Michael Collins TD will be the party leader of the new Independent Ireland party. File picture: Dan Linehan

The leader of Ireland's newest political party says that he expects more TDs to come on board in the coming weeks.

Cork South-West TD Michael Collins was announced in November as the leader of the Independent Ireland party, the 27th party in the state with Limerick County TD Richard O'Donoghue as the General Secretary.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Collins said that the idea of a rural-focused party had been discussed for some time and he and Mr O'Donoghue had decided to make the move due to the amount of interest from politicians and potential election candidates.

"We've been sitting down the last week or two, around the table, long, lengthy meetings with individuals just to try and see can they work into the policies that we have and the mission statement that we're going to have. I'm hopeful there'll be more names added in the very near future [from this building] that's TDs, or maybe senators as well. But I'm talking local level as well. So there are a lot of councillors who are already independent who are interested in getting under some umbrella.

"But for now, we have sat down with TDs. And they are interested, interested enough to want more discussion. If they didn't they'd be gone."

Policies

Mr Collins said that the party will look to fill a space in the political spectrum which he believes is under-served. He said that the party would be different from both government and opposition parties on immigration, where he says the country has "gone beyond breaking point", and climate policies which he says have "attacked rural living". He said that the party is supportive of the EU, but that the organisation "must be questioned" particularly on fisheries and agriculture.

"We pitch ourselves as a different party and a party that is going to keep listening to people on the ground and have councillors and hopefully candidates that can do the same."

In terms of the number of TDs the party could return, Mr Collins said that he was reluctant to set targets, but said that he would like to be in a position where the party could form anything from 10 to 14 seats of a government coalition.

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Mr Collins said that the party was necessary because neither Taoiseach Leo Varadkar nor Tánaiste Micheál Martin "understands rural Ireland". He said that he had negotiated with both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil previously and asked for safeguards of Bantry General Hospital and a standalone fisheries minister, something which he said was rejected. 

However, he said that does not mean that he is discounting future negotiations with any party in the Dáil. In those cases, TDs would be expected to vote along party lines only on issues which are in a programme for government.

"We are determined to sit down and talk and listen to everybody. And there are parties we're very different from, but if we're going to into government our policies are going to be very strong and if there's no agreement we will become a very strong opposition."

The party will launch officially early this year, Mr Collins said.

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