Reform Alliance member, Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames would be happy for the group to become a political party. She was one of five members, including Lucinda Creighton who left Fine Gael last year over the abortion issue.

“We are a grouping, there to ask questions, to shake up the power, and are looking for accountability, with different views, and we want political reform, and openness in how things are done,” she said. “We want to see people are served better, and we have a real role, in that sense.”

The Galway senator told irishsmokefill, that neither she nor any of the others have any regrets about the decision that they made last year.

“We all have a right to our own conscience and I worked hard with the Taoiseach to have a free vote, which was not forthcoming, and how unwise that was of the Taoiseach,” said the Senator. “Politics is not static; it’s all the time moving on.”

She said that with the Seanad election, the government will be in the minority in the Seanad.

“It’s going to make the Seanad an exciting chamber of debate, where every vote will be fought for,” she said. “There is a future in Reform Alliance, whether it will always be called that or not. I would be happy if it became a party, and have no difficulty with that. The group is evolving, and is a broad church.”

She said they want accountability in politics and are not for stroke politics, and she would like to see a mass movement and mass offering, of left and right.

“It’s wrong to be classed as party of the left or the right, because that construct has failed,” said Senator Healy-Eames.