Verona Murphy Wexford

“I do think absolutely a new party is needed. It’s fairly evident that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have no interest in rural Ireland. But we need a party with a broader base to work from than just farmers and it needs to aim to lead government.

"There’s no doubt change is on the horizon and I’ll work with anyone within that. But if we don’t have the office of Taoiseach and finance, it’ll be a political mudguard and I won’t be a mudguard.”

Michael McNamara Clare

“It’s not surprising farmers would support a farmers’ party, given how they’re vilified.

“I would be very interested in joining a party or movement but I want to see the detail first. Any representative group is going to have to go further again – it has to be rural and urban.

“It has to be a movement that isn’t kneejerk or hysterical. If you want to influence things, you need policies, not platitudes.”

Michael Healy-Rae Kerry

“I wouldn’t go joining any other party but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t welcome one. There’s such a disconnect between the political parties at present and the people of rural Ireland.

“Any group of people who would take to heart rural issues, particularly of farmers and fishermen, I’d obviously welcome working with them. But tomorrow morning if there was a party formed, would I join them? No, would be the answer.”

Marian Harkin Sligo–Leitrim

“I do feel that the regional, rural and farming voice is missing a lot of the time when it comes to decision-making, and I do think that that voice needs to be represented much more strongly.

“As agriculture is concerned, the voice of farmers tends to be sidelined. When they raise issues, when they try to raise legitimate concerns, they are branded as climate change deniers and that’s crazy and a benefit to nobody.”

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Fitzmaurice not running in next election without rural party

Three in four farmers would vote for a farmers' party