The next general election presents a “very promising opportunity” for centrist and centre-right voters seeking “decisive change”, according to Independent Senator Michael McDowell.
In an exclusive interview with Gript, the Senator was asked if he felt voters were entitled to a political alternative to the parties traditionally on offer.
“I do feel that,” he said.
“And I think that, you know, if you put Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael together and then you ask yourself ‘Are they going to govern by themselves?’, I don’t think they are going to have the support that would enable them to do that. And then the question is, with whose cooperation are they going to govern?”
FINE GAEL AND FIANNA FÁIL “DRIVEN BY THE GREENS’ AGENDA”
McDowell said that after the next election, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s coalition partners could include some of the smaller “Leftwing” parties, such as “Labour, the Social Democrats, or the like.” However, he said that there could be a right-leaning alternative as well.
“Those people who are in the centre or centre-right in our politics would, I think, be entitled to somehow make a meaningful choice in the next election to say that this is the general direction that we want Irish politics to take,” he said.
“We don’t want it to go leftwing, we don’t want a leftwing party wagging the tail of government.”
He claimed that during the tenure of this government, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had been “driven by the Greens’ agenda” – not just in relation to the environment, but “other issues.”
“…I think the two referendums show what happens when you have those two parties being manoeuvred into positions which are contrary to their own instincts,” he added.
THE PUBLIC WANT “DECISIVE CHANGE” AT THE NEXT ELECTION
Asked what advice he would give to a hypothetical centre-right party that was going into coalition after the next election, given his own experience with the Progressive Democrats years ago, McDowell said that such a group would need clear goals.
“If you’re going to establish such a grouping, I think that you’d want to be clear that you weren’t just aspiring to be the mudguard on a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition – that your aim was to seriously determine the direction of the next government,” he said.
“Because people, I think, will want change, and they want the change to be fairly decisive. And therefore, I don’t think that the notion which most political correspondents think of a group of Independents on a random basis propping up a government is an acceptable one.
“I think it has to be much more coherent than that, and an agenda shared between those people who aspire to be in government which the people can understand.”
CLIMATE ACTION BILL’S GOALS “WILL NEVER BE ACHIEVED”
Asked if such a party should aspire to have the same level of influence that the Green Party has had under Eamon Ryan, McDowell replied: “There’s not much point in seeking to be in a position to influence government unless you have an agenda.”
“Eamon Ryan did persuade the government parties to adopt his climate bill, which will never be achieved,” he said, in reference to the Climate Action Bill.
“He engaged in a lot of aspirational politics which were incapable of delivery, and he stopped a lot of things from happening – you know, the circular road in Galway, various motorway and other infrastructural things from happening, while talking vaguely about railways as being the solution.
“We know what’s going to happen in Ireland if present policies go ahead: €20 billion will be spent on an underground from Malahide to Dartmouth Square and Dublin will not have a Luas system. And that’s a choice that Eamon Ryan made.”
WOULD MCDOWELL LEAD A POLITICAL PARTY?
A recent op-ed in the Irish Independent floated the idea of McDowell serving as “the ringleader of a promising but disparate group” of Independent politicians, such as Verona Murphy, Carol Nolan or Michael McNamara.
Asked if he would be willing to consider leading a new or existing party, McDowell was non-committal.
“Whether it’s me or whether it’s somebody else, I’m very strongly of the view that if the Independents and the kind of people who vote for them want a voice in the next government, they will have to be coherent,” he replied.
“And is there some form of non-disconnect between being coherent and being independent? I don’t think so. You know, in Leinster House behind me, we have the most savage party whip system that is present in any European parliament. In England you can vote against the government and you’re not automatically deselected at the next election. In Ireland we don’t have that; you’re expelled from the party instantly.
“And the government has, for instance, 40 out of the 60 senators, and they’ve largely converted the Senate this time round, as opposed to the last time around when the government was the minority, into a rubber stamp. They’re rubber-stamping a lot of matters through the parliament at this stage. And I think people would have more respect for a grouping which said on many, many issues our members will be free to vote in accordance with their own views.”
He added: “I don’t see why every issue has to be a matter of confidence in the government.”
“THERE IS A VERY SIGNIFICANT OPPORTUNITY” FOR CHANGE AT THE NEXT ELECTION
He also said that it wouldn’t be his decision to make himself the leader of such a movement.
“I don’t think it’s a matter for me to take the lead and I don’t intend taking any lead in such discussions,” he said.
“You know, independent TDs have their own minds and their own agendas. But I am always willing, from wherever I am, be it in the Senate or in the Dáil or in neither, to assist in any way to ensure that Ireland goes in the right direction.
“And I think that at the next election there is a very significant opportunity there for people who do want change, don’t want a leftwing dog tail wagging the government. And I think that opportunity will come to the fore.”
MCDOWELL PREDICTS AN EARLY ELECTION
McDowell further claimed that despite the government’s repeated insistence that there would be no early general election, this was only a pretense.
“You see the government at the moment is pretending that they’re going to have no general election until February of 2025,” he said.
“I don’t believe that. I think that’s being done simply to keep the Greens on side, to stop anybody jumping into the lifeboats too quickly on this government, and also to keep Sinn Féin guessing.
“But I think it’s much more likely that in the autumn of this year, after the budget, there will be a general election. And I think that it would be a mistake to think that the results of the local and European elections will be mirrored mathematically in the same way in such a general election.”