Michael Fitzmaurice rallying 25 councillors for possible rural party

Michael Fitzmaurice said he will have discussion documents drawn up within six weeks on all political areas, such as health, agriculture and transport.

It could lead to meetings around the country with a view to putting a new party on a sound footing. Mr Fitzmaurice also claims to be in discussion with up to 25 councillors.

The TD for Roscommon-Galway re-floated the idea of a rural party earlier this year after the farmers’ movement in the Netherlands, the Boer Burger Beweging (BBB), made big gains in March elections. They are now the third-biggest party in that country.

Mr Fitzmaurice told the Irish Independent he has been in contact with up to 25 councillors from across the political spectrum, along with private-sector individuals, thought to include some prominent personalities.

He said he saw the Nature Restoration Law coming almost a year ago, and that the sudden dominance of the agricultural and political agenda in Ireland is a boon to efforts to awaken the grassroots, with many people in contact with him.

“Unless the political people in rural Ireland come together, we are in trouble,” he said, confirming he is working on a series of policy documents that will not just address agriculture, but planning, housing, and other sectors.

The policy platform could lead to a series of public meetings, but Mr Fitzmaurice said: “We have to crawl before we can walk. Look at the sway the Greens have at the moment. What they believe in, they’re putting through.

“There is no point in setting something up, unless we do something similar. I think we need to go down a road where there is discipline.

“It [any new party] has to be responsible because people will have to toe the line on budgetary issues, and on a Programme for Government, if that is agreed after the next election.”

Asked about the local and European elections next year, he said: “You’d want to be ready to tog out for anything. But if there was a general election in the next few months you wouldn’t be ready.”

If he did not have a platform then, he would step down, said the TD of nine years, adding that he has “plenty else to do”.

He has said previously he would not be going forward again as an Independent.

Similar discussions are, meanwhile, going on among the Rural Independent Group, but Mr Fitzmaurice said a simple alliance would not be sufficient in his view – not that he personally aims to lead a new party.

“You need to be fluent in English and Irish if you’re leading something. There are great people out there [who could do it], but I’m not going to be probed on who they are,” he said.

Mr Fitzmaurice said he expected to have his draft policy programme ready for discussion in six weeks.

The Nature Restoration Law has concentrated minds, he said. It envisages a return of 20pc of land to a wilderness state. The targets include rewetting 30pc of drained and farmed peatlands by 2030.

Last week, the European People’s Party (EPP) withdrew from negotiations in Brussels, while Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he believes some of the proposals go too far.

Mattie McGrath, leader of the Rural Independents Group in the Dáil, said he put the chances of the formation of a new “Alternative Alliance” at 60-40, although he is not involved with Mr Fitzmaurice.

He said he and others were having talks with “probably a dozen councillors” and had identified potential candidates.

“A lot of people are very unhappy. It wouldn’t only be for farmers, but for rural and urban people who feel NGOs and other groups have got a grip of government,” he added.

“We have to return it to what the people want. I am working with TDs Michael Collins and Richard Donohoe, and we are talking with other TDs. But Michael Fitzmaurice isn’t talking to any of us, or to other Independents. He is doing his own thing, whatever it is.”