The Independent Alliance has published a ten-point charter which it says will be necessary for any government it can support.
The group is running 20 election candidates across the country - including a former Fianna Fáil by-election candidate, David McGuinness from Dublin West, who has joined this morning.
The charter's ten points are summarised as follows:
- Ending the right to make political appointments
- Far-reaching Oireachtas reform
- Addressing the needs of rural Ireland
- Demanding meaningful banking reform
- Ending discrimination of any type - "whether it is on thee basis of gender, race, age, creed or otherwise"
- Prioritise the needs of small business
- "Insiders, a plague on Irish life, must be outed"
- Refusing to allow Ireland "play second fiddle" within the EU
- Ireland's most vulnerable must be protected
- A complete overhaul of our justice system is necessary
The alliance is promising an end to groupthink - but already some divisions have emerged about how it might operate in government.
For example, there was division about whether the alliance would be prepared to participate in government alongside Sinn Féin - while a request for a show-of-hands on abortion was denied.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News:
