Fís Nua
Fís Nua is a minor environmentalist political party in Ireland.
History
The party was formed in June 2010, mainly by former members of the Green Party who were unhappy with that party's participation in the then coalition government with Fianna Fáil. Fís Nua intended to campaign on the issues of political transparency, environmental issues and social justice, and hoped to draw support from existing supporters of both the Greens and the Labour Party. "Fís Nua" means "New Vision" in Irish.The party was registered on 4 February 2011, and on the following day it was announced that they would run six candidates in the 2011 general election. Subsequently, that same month the party clashed with a rival group which had also adopted the name "New Vision". This group was formed by a son of former Fianna Fáil Minister Neil Blaney as an umbrella group for independent politicians based on four pillars: separation of bank debt and sovereign debt; overhaul of the public service; a strategy to create jobs; and what they call "the restructure" of the state's energy resources. Neither group changed their name but the latter appeared to have disappeared from public life shortly after its founding.
The party previously had one town councillor in Wicklow, Pat Kavanagh, who was elected as a member of the Green Party, but quit that party and ran in the 2011 election as a Fís Nua candidate. She then became an Independent politician.
In 2016, one of the party's two candidates in that year's general election, Niamh Ó Brien, was convicted and sentenced to four months imprisonment on charges of dangerous driving and failure to provide an intoxicant sample, after refusing to produce documentation after being stopped by Garda patrol which led to the injury of one officer who believed her to be under the influence of cannabis.
In November 2017, the Standards in Public Office Commission stated that no statements of accounts had been received from the Fís Nua, in breach of the Electoral Act.
Fís Nua has not contested any elections since 2016, though as of July 2024, it remains a registered political party. Its official Facebook account has, as of 2022, not made any posts since 2019. Some of the final posts by the account included posts encouraging users to support far-right conspiracy theorist Gemma O'Doherty, a post informing users that the party did not have the funds required to contest the 2019 European Parliament election in Ireland and instead encouraged them to spoil their votes, and finally another post discussed the possibility of the party merging with the right-wing populist group Direct Democracy Ireland.
Electoral history
2011
General election
The party ran five candidates in the 2011 general election: one each in Dublin Central, Dublin South-East and Waterford and two in Wicklow. At the press launch on 5 February the party announced that it would also contest Cork South-West but their candidate failed to be nominated by the deadline of 9 February.Although registered on 4 February 2011, the party's name did not appear on the ballot, as the Register of Political Parties in use was that in force on 1 February when the writ for the general election was issued.
| Constituency | Candidate | % 1st Pref. votes | Notes | |
| Dublin Central | Liam Johnston | 48 | 0.1% | Eliminated after first count |
| Dublin South-East | Peadar Ó Ceallaigh | 18 | 0.1% | Eliminated after first count |
| Waterford | Ben Nutty | 257 | 0.5% | Eliminated after third count |
| Wicklow | Pat Kavanagh | 291 | 0.4% | Eliminated after eighth count |
| Wicklow | Gerry Kinsella | 324 | 0.5% | Eliminated after ninth count |
All candidates polled less than 5% of the vote. Peadar Ó Ceallaigh, the candidate in Dublin South-East, polled the lowest first preference vote of all the candidates in the election, and the second-lowest on record.