AN ENGINEER FROM Australia living in Co Clare says he wants to create Ireland’s newest political party because the “extremes” are influencing Irish politics.

David Barrett sent out a notice to Irish newsrooms this week to say that he would launch The Moderate Party next week, with a view to contesting elections at all levels.

The missive said the party’s policies “could be best described as socially responsible capitalism” and set out a list of what Barrett said were the party’s aims.

Among the aims were to “promote moderate capitalism while being socially responsible” and to “provide social protections for those in need, through limited welfare”.

Another aim was to:

Provide a secular government that serves for the betterment of its citizens and the planet, and that promotes world peace.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Barrett said he has been in Ireland for five years and “never thought” he would get involved in politics but that “the extremes of capitalism and socialism on the other side are causing a lot of problems and friction worldwide”, leading to problems here in Ireland.

Asked what these problems were, Barrett pointed to the current medical card system as an example. He said that the system is causing Ireland to lose GPs and that it needs to be reformed to give holders discounts rather than free medicines or hospital care.

“They’re trying to become socialist in giving everyone, everything for free but it’s causing social harm at the same time because we’re actually destroying the health service by trying to cater for everyone,” he said.

Asked about the The Moderate Party’s name, Barrett said he feels Ireland’s parties are getting too extreme “in certain ways” and that “the socialist voice is getting too loud”.

He also said he doesn’t feel enough contribution is coming from “the top end of town”.

Asked whether his party’s pitch for fiscal conservatism is similar to that made by Renua, Barrett said that his party is secular and not connected to any religious ethos.

He added that his party would be “neutral” on the issue of abortion and that, had it been around during last year’s referendum, it would have allowed members vote as per their conscience.

He adds that he personally supported the repeal of the Eighth Amendment.

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Barrett says this will be the party's logo.

Barrett says he has not yet applied to Sipo to register his political party but says that he “has the paperwork” ready. He also says that he “is not a rich person” and the party will be reliant on membership funding.

He says he has contacted a number of politicians to sound out their interest but that he also wants “moderate people” to express an interest in running for the party.

Asked about other nascent Irish political movements, and in particular Peter Casey’s claim that he wants to enter politics, Barrett says he thinks Casey was “given a rough ride by the media”.

“I think that he was sort of vilified as being a racist where I don’t think he was,” he adds.

Asked whether he would consider working with Casey, Barrett said he would be interested in hearing what he says but that he would first like to learn more about him.

“I would be interested to see if he had moderate views. I think his views, from what I could see, were more moderate than radical, because I do believe we do need to firm up on law and order.”