The Irish Community Party was formed by Andrew O’Hallaron in response to the closure of the local GP service in the town in October 2015. The aim of the party is to focus on the problems now associated with rural Ireland.

With rural Ireland being a major issue in the recent election and formation of the 32nd Dail, O’Hallaron feels that recent governments have not done enough to help life in the countryside.

“Fine Gael’s message going forward for the last election was ‘let’s keep the recovery going’, but those outside of the M50 did not see any recovery.

“Rural Ireland had been left in the wilderness, it has been left behind, and I think it is time now something was done before it is too late,” he said.

Investment

O’Hallaron also believes investment is vital for the next government if rural Ireland is to benefit in the near future.

“We need to start investing in infrastructure, we need to start investing in school and in roads. We are not looking for jobs in every single village and backroad of Ireland; we are looking for the major towns in each county to have some sort of employment for people in the hinterland that is sustainable,” O’Hallaron continued.

The focus of the proposed party is to establish policies beneficial to rural Ireland with the aim of contesting local elections within the next few years.

“We are going to aim for local elections in three years’ time, so we are going to identify people in particular areas who are interested in running under our heading.

“We are going to form a core of people who are very dedicated to it,” he concluded.