IT’S BEEN A long time coming, but Lucinda Creighton has finally confirmed the details.
At a press conference at a Dublin hotel this morning, the former Fine Gael TD told journalists that she is to launch a new political party by March.
Creighton was joined by financial advisor Eddie Hobbs and independent councillor for Offaly John Leahy for the announcement.
The party does not have a name yet, but a hashtag – #RebootIreland – is being used to organise and discuss the party on Twitter.
Creighton said that the party is to be based on four key business-based pillars: making the public sector public, giving politics back to the people, measuring government achievements, and building an economy for entrepreneurs.
The focus is on economic policy, rather than social policy; there was no initial mention of the party’s stance on the upcoming same-sex marriage referendum or other social issues.
The Dublin Bay South TD also called on ordinary people to run for the party in the general election which is due in 2016, and said they want to run at least one candidate in every constituency. On the party’s new website, which was launched today, people can volunteer their time or find out how to become a candidate with the party.
“I am here because I believe Irish people deserve a genuine choice at the next election,” Creighton said. “It is my intention to provide that choice”.
Creighton, who left Fine Gael over the Protection of Life During Pregnancy legislation, said that she has been working with more than 100 volunteers for the past nine months to plan how the new party can “radically change how we run this country”.
“We are not attempting to launch another traditional political party. We are launching a political movement that intends to radically change a political system that is a generation past its sell-by date,” she said.
She said that the party wants to make Ireland “a great place to innovate, to grow, to build and expand a small business, to employ people, to work and to be a consumer”.
The former Minister of State said that the party was going to face attack but said that she was prepared for it.
It will of course be hard. Slings and arrows are at the ready, pointed at us. We will proceed and will not be deflected from our goals.
Eddie Hobbs said he was involved because he believed people deserting the established political parties and looking for an alternative.
Creighton said the identities of the other founding members “will emerge in due course”.
However she played down assumptions that members of the Reform Alliance group, which includes other former Fine Gael politicians, would be joining her party. She said it had always been made clear that the alliance was not a precursor to a political party.
A series of public meetings are to be held around the country in the coming weeks ahead of the official launch of the party in the spring.
Originally published: 16.50
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