Lucinda Creighton has formally unveiled her plans for a new political party.

She's being joined by financial commentator Eddie Hobbs in unveiling the timeline for a new party to be launched in the spring.

The new party - to be formed in time for the next general election - comes 18 months after Deputy Creighton resigned as a junior minister and left the Fine Gael parliamentary party, when she said she was "Fine Gael to her core". 

The party to be launched later in the spring doesn't yet have a name, but it does have a hashtag - summarising its ambition to 'reboot ireland'.

The involvement of Eddie Hobbs is to ensure the party has a pro-business slant - but it also aims, in its own words, to "make the public sector public".

And alongside the unsurprising promises of political reform, it also hopes to have a clear social conscience - promising it will measure government with a "clear social target" - and to be a strong voice representing rural Ireland.

The timeline is still loose - but Deputy Creighton says the new party will be launched within the next eight weeks, with a series of meetings around the country before then.