Lucinda Creighton joined Claire Byrne on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night ahead of the Reform Alliance’s conference in the RDS on Saturday, January 25.

And took some views from the audience….

Claire Byrne: “Lucinda, what is [The Reform Alliance]?”

Lucinda Creighton: “It’s…It’s a vehicle and a way for us, I suppose, to work together in the Dáil and Seanad to put forward ideas, where we have agreements and common position, we obviously don’t have that on everything. We meet once or twice a week. We go through the Seanad and Dáil agenda and we co-ordinate, we co-table motions, or amendments to legislation, things like that.”

Byrne: “Why do you need to call that something other than Fine Gael when, when…”

Creighton: “Because we’re in Fine Gael.”

Byrne: “But you’re members of the Fine Gael party?”

Creighton: “Some of us, Claire. Not all.”

Byrne: “But you made that very clear today. Why can’t you do that within the Fine Gael party as such?”

Creighton: “Well because, it’s been made clear to us we’re not wanted in the Fine Gael party.”

Byrne: “So why are you still in the Fine Gael party?”

Creighton: “Well, for me, I suppose I’ve been a member of Fine Gael since I was 18 years old, so there’s a certain attachment, needless to say I’ve worked very hard, both as a grassroots supporter, as a canvasser behind the scenes and, in more recent times, as a public representative. So it’s difficult, it’s not an ideal situation, I suppose from that nostalgic point of view, but I’ve a job to do, I’m an elected TD and I want to find ways to highlight issues that matter to Irish people.”

Byrne: “Do you reckon though that Fine Gael will kick you out now, for doing this, for setting up this conference, for registering with the Standards In Public Office organisation? Because if you start funding for the Reform Alliance, you could be taking fundraising away from Fine Gael?”

Creighton: “Well, there are a few questions in that. I mean, firstly, I think it would be bizarre if any political party didn’t welcome political debate. I mean I’ve hosted meetings in my constituency on every topic under the sun, from health to education to political reform in the past.”

Byrne: “That’s different though to taking their money, when it comes to fundraising?”

Creighton: “Well, hang on a second, the only people that are taking money at the moment in my name and in the name of my colleagues is actually the Fine Gael party.”

Bryne: “Yeah, but you’ve registered with the Reform Alliance, which allows you then to raise funds..”

Creighton: “Yeah, but it’s an important point cause a lot of people aren’t aware of the fact that, every year, the Fine Gael party receives, is now in receipt of about €300,000 in the name of TDs who have hand, act or part in the workings of the Fine Gael parliamentary party. And it is an important point because I think it should be given back to the Exchequer.”

Byrne: “You’re going to be raising funds now for the Reform Alliance. Fine Gael are also trying to raise funds all the time, everybody knows that, that’s what political parties do, so there is a very obvious conflict there.”

Creighton: “I don’t think there’s any conflict. I’m an elected member of the Oireachtas, my colleagues are also elected members of the Oireachtas, we have political engagement that we want to carry out. We want to organise events, we want to have meetings, we want to engage with the public and, you know, let’s remember what this is about. It’s not about political parties, it’s not about Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, or anybody else. Politics is supposed to be about serving people. And, we have a situation where, in a recent referendum, 60% of the Irish voting public didn’t show up to vote. In the last general election, approximately 40% of people didn’t show up to vote. So we have a problem in terms of actually interesting, getting people interested and connected with politics. Political parties are often to be seen as very exclusive, to be a closed shop and the activities of political parties are often seen as something that does not appeal to and is not welcoming of the public, the actual people that are affected by political decisions. And what we’re trying to do, is give those people a chance to actually feed into the political system and that’s what we’re doing, by organising our meeting.”

Byrne: “Perhaps, dipping your toe in the water, to see what level of interest there is in another political party, is that a part of it as well?”

Creighton: “Well, no it’s not. I mean I don’t know what the future holds and I think there’s lots of speculation about the potential and possibilities of new political parties in the future. But that’s not the purpose of holding these meetings. We set off all along…”

Byrne: “But you wouldn’t rule it out either, just to be clear. You’re not going to say tonight the Reform Alliance will never become a political party.”

Creighton: “Well, I mean, if you had asked me a year ago, would I have been excluded from the Fine Gael parliamentary party for voting for something, according to what we said we would do, before the last election, I would have said no. So I’ve learned that, you know, there are no certainties in politics but…”

Byrne: “The Independent TD Finian McGrath issued a statement today, warning people about the Reform Alliance, saying look ‘this is just a bunch of disillusioned Fine Gaelers who, you know, share the Fine Gael philosophy around economics but not on social policy’. Is that a fair assessment, do you think?”

Creighton: “I, I mean, I think it’s clear that our political background we’ve come from, the Fine Gael party, I don’t think that there’s any crime in that. I don’t know, well I’ve some idea of what Finian’s own political background is. I think it’s bizarre that any democrat in this State, particularly one who holds public office would warn about a movement, to try and engage people in political discourse and to ensure that we actually do politics better. So I don’t know what Finian is fearful of, I don’t know what my other colleagues in the Oireachtas are fearful of. I think we should all embrace greater engagement and greater discussion of politics. We desperately need political reform. I know you’re about to have a discussion [later in the programme] about the future and the post-bail out period. You know it’s a very, I think it’s a very interesting discussion to have because Ireland has changed, people’s incomes have dropped dramatically. A lot of people have lost their jobs. A lot of people have been forced to emigrate as we know. Yet politics in this country hasn’t changed at all. We haven’t reformed the political system. That’s something that my party committed to do before the last election, it hasn’t done in Government and it’s one thing that I’m personally very disappointed about.”

Byrne: “OK.”

Creighton: “And it’s something I was disappointed about as a minister, and I’m still disappointed as somebody who’s now outside of the parliamentary party.”

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