IN a time of political confusion, potential Taoisigh can save themselves a trip to Dublin West to visit the new TD, Mr Joe Higgins. The only certainty is that Mr Higgins will not vote for either Mr John Bruton or Mr Bertie Ahern.
It is not just that he has said he will not others have changed their minds; but friends and foes agree that Mr Higgins is totally sincere to the point of dourness.
Mr Higgins (48), has already had a more colourful political career than most TDs with years of service.
He was not simply a water charges candidate. His aim is to build a socialist party on the basis of community action, forging "an alliance of the working class, PAYE workers, the unemployed and the youth".
Whether his supporters in Dublin West are fully aware of his long term plans is unclear.
In his manifesto he pledged to take only £15,000 of his Dail salary, donating the rest to the building of the Socialist Party.
The party's Web site indicates it is affiliated to the Committee for a Workers' International, one of the many small Trotskyite international organisations.
He grinned broadly when it was led out that he was the first Trotskyist to be elected to the Dail. He calls himself "a democratic socialist in the tradition of Connolly", while other party members say the Socialist Party takes its inspiration from all socialists and Marxists who are antiStalinist.
Mr Higgins, who is single, is from Lispole, Co Kerry. He is the son of a small farmer. Educated at UCD in the early 1970s, he became an English teacher in the VEC sector. He resigned from teaching many years ago and describes himself as a full time public representative. He was a member of the Labour Party for 15 years and served on the party's executive. He was also a leading member of Militant.
Throughout the 1980s he was involved in the bitter battles for the soul of Labour, in particular the battles over coalition.
Mr Higgins and other Militant members denied they were part of a separate organisation. They were simply like minded members of the Labour Party who published a newspaper, Militant Irish Monthly.
Militant and other Trotskyist parties were involved in what was called "entryism", and had joined socialist parties throughout Europe in order to influence them and turn them leftwards. It was also a fertile ground for recruitment. Militant recruited both outside and within the Labour Party.
Militant was much more doctrinally orthodox than the Labour Party generally. Its enemies claimed it was dishonest in that it never admitted its real purpose.
Finally the Labour Party expelled 20 members in 1989, including Mr Higgins; the rest of Militant followed.
Mr Higgins says his priorities as a TD include "ending the harassment of ordinary PAYE workers" for arrears of water charges; dealing with the heroin crisis and defending green areas of west Dublin from developers and speculators.
He has been a local authority member for Blanchardstown and Mulhuddart since 1991 and in last year's Dublin West by election came within 250 votes of taking the seat.
While he has been building the Socialist Party, he has also been a tireless local activist and campaigner. The majority of people who voted for him probably do not care a whit about Trotsky's Transitional Programme, or the task of the Fourth International, but voted for him because he is anti establishment, opposes coalitions, denounces political corruption and addresses voters who have not benefited from the Celtic Tiger economy.