CELEBRITY economist, Eddie Hobbs may be on the ticket in a Kildare constituency in the next general election. Or he may not.
The Kildare resident, who last week launched a new political party alongside former Fine Gael minister, Lucinda Creighton, refused to confirm to the Kildare Nationalist* that he would run in Co Kildare in the next general election.
Mr Hobbs said that he’d been brought into the as-yet-unnamed party to “get fresh blood” and that it would take a year to get the party established ahead of next year’s election.
“If there was a general election called tomorrow, I couldn’t do it,” he said, adding that he had work commitments to fulfil, as well as his new role as lead advocate for the Creighton party.
He also said that he didn’t “have a time machine” when asked if he’d run for election in 2016 and that he’d “have to look at the situation”.
He and Ms Creighton unveiled the party at the weekend but instead of having a proper name for the new union, they used the slogan #rebootireland under which to work.
The party is to be officially launched in eight weeks’ time when its main principals are to generate jobs, overhaul the public sector and to raise the “minimum lifestyle standard”. He said that they had a left wing objective but that they would use “conventional right-wing economics to do it”.
Mr Hobbs said that though the party is in discussions with some politicians that they weren’t interested in people who see the new party as a “sexy brand.”
“This is about attracting the right people. We’re not interested in recycling the old stock, the people who are good at turning up for the opening of a fridge or kissing babies,” Mr Hobbs continued.
The party also revealed that they harboured ambitions to run a candidate in every county.
The Cork native moved to County Kildare in 1994 and currently lives outside Kilcullen. Though he’s spent more time living in his adopted county than his original birthplace, he refused to say if he would run for either place.
“My total and utter ambition is to get this up and running. It’s a huge job and it’ll take a year,” he said.
