‘CHANGE’ AND ‘REFORM’ are the buzz words among the nearly one thousand attendees at the Reform Conference in Dublin’s RDS this afternoon.

A wide selection of Irish society have descended on the conference hall with more males than females – as panellist Olivia O’Leary noted – and plenty of ideas and policies being thrown around.

One attendee, who declined to be identified, said he was former member of the Fianna Fáil national executive who had quit over a lack of substantive policy proposals. He hopes he’ll get some of that today.

• Read: 9 things we learned from the Reform Alliance’s ‘monster meeting’

There are also former and current members of Fine Gael – including the Reform Alliance themselves – among the audience and, judging by applause earlier, a strong pro-life contingent.

We spoke to a few attendees during a break in proceedings today:

Lorraine Lynch, from Clare, is a former member of one of the bigger political parties and “thinks a lot could be changed”:

Bob Quinn, from Naas, isn’t sure whether reform is actually achievable but thinks the good turnout is encouraging:

Maurice O’Grady, from Blackrock, is “interested in the reform of politics that’s so badly needed”:

Dwyane Brown, from north Dublin, is fed-up and says “we need to encourage new voices and new people”:

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Read: ‘Whatever about new parties, we need new politics’: Nearly a thousand attend Reform Conference