Shane Ross - 2011 General Election

2011 General Election

On 15 January 2011, during the course of a television interview Ross announced that he would stand as candidate at the 2011 general election, running in the Dublin South constituency. He had refused an offer to run for the resurgent Fine Gael party and become an "insignificant backbencher", and was determined instead to stand as an Independent candidate, declaring: "I think you're going to see in this election a huge number of similar independents who want to put an end to cronyism, who want to see a change in the political system, who want to put an end to Civil War politics in Ireland, who want to see an end to the kind of tribal politics we’ve got, who are going to stand in the election as well". In the election Ross got the second highest vote in the country when he polled 17,075 votes in Dublin South to head the poll.

In April 2011 Ross claimed the Government was “wearing the clothes of the last government of Brian Cowen” in its economic policy. He asked why senior bondholders had to be treated in the same way as depositors. “They are completely different creatures,” he said. “Senior bondholders go out there and take a risk and make an investment.” Ross claimed that Enda Kenny’s greatest cheerleaders in his policy were in Fianna Fáil. “The support is coming from the last government,” he added. “And very few people can see the difference, if there is any, between this Government and the last government in its attitude to the banks.” Ross accused the Government of completely and utterly surrendering to the IMF and the EU. “They know that, we know that . . . everybody knows that,” he said. “Default, apparently, is the word which cannot be mentioned in this chamber.”