The newest Dail Eireann member rules himself and his new grouping as being just about parish pump politics, and said that there is also problems inside the Dublin pale that needs to be dealt with.
“There are also problems inside the pale, and some changes don’t cost money, and there is ferociously bad laws brought in that stopped people from getting work, which is stifling parts of Ireland. If some things are tweaked, it would make Ireland a better place,” said Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice to irishsmokefill.
Fitzmaurice TD was elected in October 2014 in the Roscommon/South Leitrim by-election, which occurred because Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan became an MEP. Ming supported Fitzmaurice who had become a councillor in Galway in the previous May local election.
The Dail’s newest Deputy says he is proposing a different type of politics to what has been done before in Ireland.
“There is a group of us that talk regularly, and I am only a few months in the door, some would say not even a wet weekend, but I hope that we are all the kind of people that have the country’s heart in front of them, and not their own small square, or being worried about getting elected again,” said the TD, who will be facing Roscommon/Galway next time out. “It is a huge task, and the whole political system has to change to bring this around, and I call it a train journey, and I have just started from the first station, and people will get on and off along the way, but hopefully we will get to the destination.”
He said that new politics has to happen because of broadband problems, infrastructure, and rural crime and that there are all different facets of rural life attacked for the past fifteen or so years.
“People say, what’s your policies, but the problems of our country should be the policies of the country, and today the people are left strapped for cash because of the likes of the USC, and one time we had good jobs, but parents now cannot send their kids to college, and is that the Ireland we want?” he asked. “When I was growing up, my family scrapped to get one of us to college, and nowadays, in fairness for unemployed people there is a system there, but there are people who can’t send their kids to college,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice. “With mortgages and childcare, they are screwed, and we have been shafted from Europe. I don’t believe the debt is ours, and we have played into the hands of the vultures.”
He said the new political alliance he is attempting to put together, isn’t just about Shane Ross and himself, and that there are other good TDs involved.
“It’s about us all together as a family putting ideas together, and yes I am talking to people in different parts of the country, and I believe we will have a common platform down the road,” said the Galway based TD.
However he said if a snap election was called before summer, the new alliance would not be ready.
“We are where we are, I’m only a few months in politics, and I am anticipating an election next March,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice. “I can be pretty blunt and sometimes people mightn’t like what I say, but I’m not populist, I call it as it is, but I’m willing to learn and listen and debate with others, and I’m willing to work with people from parties.”