The move is likely to mean 10 outgoing TDs and 15 local councillors will run for election to the Dail next year under an independent alliance banner.
High-profile deputies including Finian McGrath, Jerry Cowley and Catherine Murphy are also drafting a “mini-
programme for government” based around policies on health, education, disability and crime. They plan to use this in talks with other parties after the election if independents hold the balance of power.

Ten TDs, members of the “technical group” in the Dail, are now assessing a shortlist of more than 40 councillors who want to stand in the general election.

The list of candidates likely to be endorsed includes Brian Fitzgerald, a former Labour TD for Meath who left the party in protest at its merger with Democratic Left in 1999, and Catherine Connolly, a Galway city councillor who decided to run as an independent when Labour refused to run a second candidate with Michael D Higgins in Galway West.

Another Meath councillor, Joseph Bonner from Ashbourne, is also expected to get the alliance’s seal of approval. “We don’t want any head-bangers,” one independent TD said. “So we are going through a very rigorous process of talking to these people, looking at their policies and checking them out.”

Possible candidates are discussed every Tuesday at a weekly Dail meeting of independents in the “technical group”, who do not support the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat government.

“Look at the political reality — Fine Gael and Labour won’t touch Sinn Fein, and nor will Fianna Fail and the PDs, ” said Finian McGrath, the independent TD for Dublin North Central.

“Independents are going to be in a very strong position. We can work together on a range of core issues. We can hammer out a four or five-point plan, a sort of a mini-programme for government.”

Such a deal would be reminiscent of the one secured by Tony Gregory of Dublin Central. He signed the infamous Gregory deal with Charles Haughey in February 1982 — a deal for supporting a minority Fianna Fail government. The package included commitments on local authority house construction in Dublin’s north inner city, extra teachers for disadvantaged schools and increased employment by the local authority.

Gregory said he was in favour of endorsing other independents, but it would depend on “identifying people who make credible candidates with a track record in working for their communities”.

He said: “Every independent candidate — in the Dail or outside — will have a very difficult time competing with the big parties to get elected. We should concentrate our energy on getting elected, and worry about the Dail arithmetic after that.”

Jerry Cowley, the Mayo independent TD who proposed an alliance in a document circulated to his fellow independents last year, said the policy platform was still at the discussion stage.

“We would not be fodder for any particular party, but we have in mind that we would offer ourselves as an alternative in the event that neither government nor opposition is capable of forming a government, and they need the support of independents,” Cowley said.

Six of the current Dail independents have already endorsed the candidacy of Derek Keating, a member of South Dublin county council. Keating will be seeking a Dail seat in Dublin Mid-West, where Mary Harney of the PDs, John Curran of Fianna Fail and Paul Gogarty of the Greens are TDs. It becomes a four-seat constituency at the next general election.

Seven independents backed the successful campaign of Catherine Murphy in the Kildare North by-election in March 2005. “That was very important to my campaign,” said Murphy. “One of the things the public say about independents is: what can you do on your own? This demonstrates that you would not be going into the Dail and be isolated. This is about independents cooperating, prepared to support one government or another if our policies were going to be implemented.”

Independents, including Joe Higgins of the Socialist party, won 14 of the 166 Dail seats in 2002, while independent councillors won 89 of the country’s 883 city and county council seats in 2004.

Those most likely to agree to a joint policy platform are McGrath, Murphy, Cowley, Paudge Connolly, Marian Harkin and Seamus Healy.

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