Would you support a new Rural Political Party

It could be similar to the protest vote with sinn fein at the last election. I get the feeling that many in FF and FG would be really worried if a rural part were to get a bit of momentum going into a general election.

I personally would support one

I would reckon that its not just farmers that would vote for a rural political party. Rural people are very fed up of the anti rural stance taken by this govt. We can do nothing right in their eyes

It would make zero difference against those policies you mentioned, they're mostly EU directives anyway. It's pretty much a guarantee the greens will not be in the next government, but this so called green agenda is going absolutely nowhere.

Barring a major surprise, the next government will be a left leaning coalition comprising of Sinn Fein, Labour, Social Democrats and PBP. None of these seem to care much about rural Ireland. Social democrats in particular seem to be hell bent on demonising horse, and dog racing amongst other rural centric things.

This rural party craic is stuff pushed but the likes of the healy raes who are bigger gangsters than anyone in the Dail.

That's not a rural party, it's a farmers party. I live in a very rural area but less than 10% of people in the area have anything to do with agriculture. Rural areas need more specific representation but it cannot be dictated by farming interests only.

Don't think it will go anywhere - majority of larger/intensive farmers will still vote FFG. I also think it will be the next CAP that will shape the future of farming post 2028 and no one in the sector here appears to be aware or awake to that, lest of all the main farming orgs who seem to think the CAP budget will just keep expanding as the EU expands, to maintain the current bloated structure that just favours big agri business, while farmer numbers, farmland environmental quality etc. continues to decline across the block.

Probably in the next couple of hours once more of the usual suspects see it trending....

Was a lad got elected as a td for this constituency some decades back, based on it being the pothole capital of ireland. Another lad some year's later on a hospital closure issue.

The hospital closed anyway & we're still the capital for potholes.

The history of Farmers parties is poor - Farmers party in the early days of the state merged with Cumann na nGael to form Fine Gael in early 1930's & Clann na Talmhan in 1940-50's also disappeared. That was at a time when there were many more farmers than now. Proposed party smacks of populism - poorly developed ideas aimed at attracting votes. Look what Brexit & Trump have created & indeed the failure of Beef Plan in recent years here - all based on populism. Farmers need to influence the policies of the centrist parties - Fine Gael & Fianna Fail. Any party to succeed needs to have coherent strategies. Water quality is one of the first issues to tackle for agriculture. Improving water quality will take the pressure off agriculture - change in practices regarding slurry storage & application, reduced chemical fertilizer, buffer zones along watercourses etc. This has already been demonstrated e.g. Agricultural catchments programme in west Cork.

I couldn't possibly vote for someone who pays such little attention to their dental hygiene

This post is very correct in that the countryside is in serious danger of becoming gentrified. Only the wealthy can afford to buy in it and if planning permissions disappear then where do the next generation of rural families go? I would be inclined to vote for a rural party.

And let's say they get 15 to 20 seats. What then, would they go for a left government SF, social democratics, people b4 profit. Hardly.. so would they join a FF FF government.

It's a lot easier to be a hurler on the ditch. If I had a safe independent seat I would hold on to it, than be a stools weak leg.

If ‘rural’ is shorthand for anti green anti environment - no I wouldn’t vote for it.

if it’s about rural regeneration and preservation and supporting village populations, better services, better transport links, supporting business and farming that is sustainable, rewarding rural innovation etc I’d be interested.

The bother with all of this new found support for farmers by a certain far right element is pure piggybacking on the success in the Netherlands.

I saw a tweet whereby someone was questioning the viability of a farmers party to which a troll replied with - we need to support our farmers, Brazil etc. - all the usual stuff. Then someone called out the troll that if you go back to his tweets from November he expressed severe disdain for farmers and all landowners. The far right seem to see farmers as an easy way of gaining votes.

Im surprised that Fitzmaurice is talking about joining them. I thought he’d be cuter than that. That said he’s around a long time and it’s time that he does something or shut up. He doesn’t want to end up as another Denis Naughton I suppose.

A sure fire way of knowing that this won’t be successful is the fact that Healy Raes are steering clear

Take my local area. My Sister in law is a nurse working in the local hospital, her husband a garda in the same local town, their two kids are in the local primary school. They applied for planning permission on a site from her parents land. On the same road she has a brother, parents, four uncles and aunts and five first cousins. She was refused four times and was told that she had insufficient need to live in the area. This is effectively rural planning permission disappearing.

There is a development of houses released in the local town, a four bed semi is €515,000. Rural houses ready to move into are freely making this and above in our area, so ergo only the wealthy can afford them.

This is it. So would Sinn Fein.

Keeping the greens and Sinn Fein out is a simple manifesto I could get behind.

The healy raes are cute as sh1thouse rats. They wont join when they can have it every way as independents. They never do anything that goes against their own self interests.

Only people with short memories would. When asked how they would pay for their day dreaming schemes, an increase of inheritance tax to 40 percent will pay for it. They will crucify self employed people.

Grand job they are doing in the north. Even biden could not stand them too long.

Ya. It was in the post you quoted. No need to live in the area.

Oh I just used the phrase ribbon development based on your post where you ourlined that 11 of her relatives had houses already on the same road. I obviously have no idea of the actual layout of the area.

You wouldn't normally see multiple houses built on a private road 200m from a public road.

Most such dwellings are farmhouses/limited to farmers. It's against general planning guidelines I think, backfield development or something?

They're probably better off in the long run as such a property would be almost unsellable.

I've never been a fan of this urban/rural divide that a lot of people tend to buy into. Ireland only has one/two cities, Dublin/Belfast with the rest being rural. I always hear people in Cork etc moaning about how Dublin gets 'everything' and we get nothing and I don't agree with it as Dublin is severely lacking (as is the rest of Ireland) in transport infrastructure and planning for housing. The other common moan is about Dublin dictating to the rest of Ireland, more bull as most of our politicians 'dictating' from Dublin are politicians sent there from the rest of the country although I completely agree with the dislike of Eamon Ryan and I'm sure a lot of dubs dislike him too.

The concept of what is rural and what is urban is a complex matter too for example I'm technically in an urban area but personally it doesn't feel very urban to me as I have sweeping views of the countryside and can be surrounded by fields in over twenty mins on foot. I jog and walk in the countryside all the time. Would someone living in say Kilgarvan class Tralee as urban or not ? Would someone in Araglin class Fermoy as urban ? etc etc. A Dub would obviously view them all as rural yet there are obvious significant differences between the towns/villages in the examples. So the urban/rural divide isn't clear cut.