Farmers are “nearly ashamed to say they are a farmer” in 2023, according to Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway, Michael Fitzmaurice.
Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice believes Ireland “needs a completely new type of party, from the bottom up” that listens to farmers and the rural community.
In an ‘On the Record’ interview with Agriland (see video above), the TD said he believes that a new political party could be a new force for rural communities.
“Politics in Ireland is now no longer one party. I can stay as an Independent if I want, but there is one game in town and that is the programme for government when the government is being put together and that’s basically the gospel for what will be done over a five-year period,” he said.
“While I can highlight things and have certain influence in helping people, at the end of the day there are big-ticket items that are coming down the line and with the uncertainty in agriculture, if we don’t do something in the rural areas, we will end up that the bus will go by us.”
According to the Roscommon-Galway TD he has talked to “politicians, people in the farming sector, business people” about a new party and he believes there appears to be a “good appetite” for it.
Deputy Fitzmaurice said he believes the time is right for a new political party because he is “worried” about some of the measures that are currently being proposed by the coalition government.
He also feels strongly that the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) cannot solve all the issues facing rural Ireland.
“There is no good in talking about CAP if a family has to rewet their land because they are gone,” he continued.
“There is no need if there is a land use policy that will block you doing x, y, z in certain parts of the country – there will be no need to get CAP because the problem is that we will have lost the people who live in those areas.”
He has also hit back at Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Green Party Senator Pippa Hackett, who said she would “proudly fight Michael Fitzmaurice’s new anti-environment party at the next election”.
Minister Hackett has also accused Deputy Fitzmaurice of using a ‘Trump-style playbook’ to drum up support for a new political party.
Deputy Fitzmaurice has strongly denied he is using Trump-style politics.
“It’s not fake news that rewetting and the nature restoration law is coming and it is not fake news that there is a land use policy – it is not fake news that one day there is no cull and the next Minister Ryan says we cannot sustain the numbers that we have,” he said.