Hi everyone,
Welcome to the Social Democrats Conference, coming to you live from Cork City.
It is so good to be here and to see all of you. I also want to welcome everyone tuning in at home.
Thank you Cian, for your introduction. I’ve said it before and I’ll … never stop saying it, we are so lucky to have you as our Deputy Leader, thank you for everything you do for this party.
Conference, it’s a very good time to be a Social Democrat.
We are ten years old.
We are up in the polls.
…and for the first time ever we are altogether in Cork.
The last time we all met was in February 2024. We were facing a year of elections and as I said back then, a year of possibilities. And what a year it was.
We almost doubled our councillors in the locals in June, and when the general election was called in late October when I was nine months pregnant.
Once the shock of that wore off, I had two wishes. I wanted us to come back with more than our 6 TDs and I really didn’t want to give birth on polling day.
Well we got 11 TDs elected and it turns out my daughter really knows how to make an entrance.
Since then, we’ve added our first elected Social Democrats Senator, Patricia Stephenson, and we were the first party to back Catherine Connolly for president, in a historic campaign that united the left and sparked a nationwide movement.
Catherine, má tá tú ag féachaint, geallaim go mbeidh mo chuid Gaeilge níos fearr don chéad Ard Fheis eile.
And the elections just keep on coming.
Our candidate for the Dublin Central by-election is Councillor Daniel Ennis, an amazing community activist for the North Inner City, a champion of inclusivity and access to sport.
Our Galway West candidate is Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich, a gaeltacht woman and passionate advocate for mental health reform from Connemara.
Conference, let’s pull out all the stops to get Mide and Dan elected. Join their campaigns, spread the word.
Because time after time, we’ve shown that our politics of equality, inclusion, honesty – and above all hope – really resonates.
We’ve shown that we can do things differently – not just for our party, but for the country. That real change is possible. If we just reach out and vote for it.
For most of my life I didn’t pay attention to politics outside of the election cycle. I know some of you watching will be the same.
If you did tune into the last election, you probably heard Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael say they were on track to build forty thousand homes that year and that of course they would pass the Occupied Territories Bill.
There was absolutely no question about that, they just needed a mandate. You may not have heard the update, and if so, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that housing figure turned out to be a complete fabrication, and the Occupied Territories Bill is gathering dust somewhere in the bowels of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
I know some people might say, this is old news – and sure, isn’t that just the way politicians act in an election.
But we simply cannot accept this dishonesty as normal.
Empty promises should not be a given in our elections.
It makes people lose faith in politics.
And it robs people of hope for the future.
And hope is such a precious commodity these days.
The act of being involved in politics at all, the act of casting a vote, is an act of hope.
None of us would be in this room tonight if we didn’t believe that we could change things for the better.
That we can become a country where our young people can stay and build a future. Where disabled people no longer have to fight for the services they are entitled to.
Where workers’ rights, and quality of life, are top of the agenda.
Where our climate and biodiversity targets are taken seriously.
And where the State steps up to deliver quality public services.
This is the future we in the Social Democrats are fighting for.
Every week when I sit across from the Taoiseach, I hear him say the same lines again and again.
“We’ve turned a corner on housing.”
“You can’t build houses overnight.”
“Would you calm down, Deputy Hearne.”
Rory, our Housing Spokesperson, is very passionate about this issue and so he should be.
There are seventeen thousand people living in homelessness, including 5000 children. This should never be normalised.
I know that so many of you aren’t planning for the future you dreamed of anymore, you’re deciding which parts of it you can live with letting go.
You have heard so many promises, and been failed so many times, that you just don’t believe there is any way out of this mess.
The real challenge for those of us in Opposition is not just to hold government to account but to come forward with solutions that are credible, costed and will work.
This week the Social Democrats published detailed plans on our housing policy. This includes our plan to create a state construction company.
So that Local Authorities can do what they were always meant to do, build social and affordable homes all over the country.
We would establish four regional modular home factories to turbocharge that delivery. We would also set up a new state savings scheme.
So that some of the one hundred and sixty billion euros sitting in Irish deposit accounts, earning almost no interest, could be used to finance the construction of badly needed homes.
This is something hundreds and thousands of us could be part of.
A national effort to address the housing crisis.
And, it’s something we know will work.
Because it’s worked in France for decades.
When we suggest these plans to the government – well first of all they say we don’t have any plans.
Then they tell us our plans are too radical.
Or will take too long to set up and get started.
But refusing to change their policies when they are not working, is what has led us here – an endless doom loop of failure.
We need to interrupt that cycle, reset and start over.
We need to protect renters, not use them as cash cows for investment funds.
We need to bring the tens of thousands of vacant homes back into use by imposing a 10% vacancy tax.
We need a temporary rent freeze and ban on no-fault evictions, to stop even more families being evicted into homelessness.
And to give renters some breathing space, while we build up supply.
Because, at the heart of our housing plan, is one guiding principle – affordability.
The simple idea that the State should be delivering homes that people on average incomes can actually afford to buy.
We used to be able to do that.
I believe under our plans, we will do that again.
The cost of living crisis is often depicted as a trend upwards on a chart, or a price comparison between supermarkets.
But of course it is much more visceral than that.
It’s the involuntary flinch when you realise your car tax is due this month. It’s the jolt you get in the supermarket at the check-out.
It’s the pain in the pit of your stomach when you see a letter from your landlord landing on your mat.
For so many, life has become a highwire act.
Bracing yourself for the next unexpected cost that could knock you off your feet into your overdraft, into missing your next rent payment, into homelessness for some.
Will it be the letter in your child’s schoolbag asking for a “voluntary contribution”?
Will it be something simple, but potentially financially devastating, like the start of a toothache?
The cost of simply existing in this country is getting harder and harder to manage every month.
The government has not been able to address the cost-of-living crisis, because they do not understand the solution.
The solution is social democracy.
Investing in quality public services, to drive down costs for everybody.
So you don’t have to pay seventy euro every time you see a GP or dentist.
So there are public childcare spaces available for your child in your community. And so you have access to education, at all levels, that is genuinely free. We also need targeted support for those who need it most.
Starting with an emergency €400 winter payment for disabled people.
And, to lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty, a second tier of child benefit.
We have pushed for these measures, we will keep pushing and we will not take no for an answer.
There are people out there who will try to convince you that migrants are responsible for the problems we face in our society.
That minorities are to blame for a chronic lack of investment in our services and our communities.
And when those voices are growing louder, when misinformation spreads like wildfire, when migrants feel increasingly unsafe.
Where is the government?
Where is their positive message about our migrant community?
A community that is made up of our friends, our family, our neighbours.
These are people who keep our public services from collapsing, who drive our economy, and contribute so much to the culture of this country.
I’d like to take a moment now to remember someone who should be here with us tonight but isn’t.
Our former Treasurer and friend Kodzo. He passed away in 2024, far too young. Kodzo immigrated to Cork from the UK, and was second generation Nigerian-Ghanain.
He was proud to call Ireland his home, prouder still to be a Cork man, and this country was made better for him being here.
I know he would be thrilled to bits to have the Conference in Cork and the fact that we have not one, not two, but three Cork TDs would make him so happy.
Thank you for everything Kodzo, we miss you.
There are tens of thousands of people like Kodzo all across this country. So often the problem with debates on migration is they erase the people at the heart of it.
Of course, there are improvements that need to be made within our migration and international protection systems.
We need faster processing times so people aren’t stuck in limbo for years on end.
We need state-run reception centres, freeing up hotels in towns and villages and ending the reliance on the private sector.
We need better support for communities who want to help migrants integrate through work programmes, sport, education and training.
We need the government to step up. Stop scapegoating and start leading.
I love social media. I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for social media, but I know I’m not alone in thinking it is an increasingly bleak place to be.
It’s now so normal to see toxicity and hate go viral, spread by those who want to incite fear, spew lies, and just terrorise people.
Speak out about certain issues and they will line up in the comment section to intimidate, harass, and even threaten to rape you. Often under the guise of protecting women and children, ironically.
And the latest threat is that if you dare to stand up to their hate, they’ll order an AI app to undress you.
For too long, this government has allowed social media and tech companies to regulate themselves – which effectively means no regulation at all – no enforcement, and no safeguards.
This is having such a corrosive impact on our society.
The impact on children’s mental health is frightening.
And teenagers are becoming increasingly isolated and lonely.
It’s time to stand up and fight back.
Time to turn off the toxic algorithms that are feeding our children harmful content.
Time to prosecute social media companies that are clearly breaking the law.
Time to recognise the immense harm posed by deepfakes, and introduce a new law giving everyone the digital copyright to their own bodies and voices.
So, they can’t be manipulated and exploited.
I don’t know about you, but when I swipe open my phone in the morning, I find I’m bracing myself for the latest breaking news headline.
The world is becoming increasingly unstable.
Despite the so-called ceasefire, the Genocide in Palestine is continuing and aid agencies are still being prevented from saving lives.
Greenland has faced the threat of invasion and annexation.
And four years into Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Putin has been asked to join Trump’s so-called Board of Peace – an assortment of autocrats and war criminals.
It is clear a policy of appeasement has not worked with the Trump Administration.
When the Taoiseach visits the oval office next month, he must make the position of the Irish people clear.
We stand alongside our EU allies, we are not joining the Board of Peace, and we do not bow down to bullies.
Now, more than ever, we need to stand up for international law, promote peace, and invest in our defence forces.
We must improve pay and conditions for personnel, support our peacekeepers, and invest in measures like cyber security and anti-drone technology.
Because being neutral does not mean being defenceless.
We can recognise the rupture in the international order, and still stand by our principles.
We must protect our neutrality.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to remove the triple lock. They claim they have a mandate to do it.
So I would like to say to them – prove it.
Put it to the people.
And let us vote on it.
I know that in the context of global instability, a housing crisis and a cost of living crisis it is hard to consider the threat and impact of climate change.
But we need a government that does.
The impacts of climate change are already here. And they’re growing in intensity and frequency.
Right now there are families all across the country who are trying to pick up the pieces after wading through flood waters in their homes and businesses.
My heart goes out to everyone affected by the devastating floods around the country these past few weeks.
We need a government that plans ahead and actually delivers flood prevention schemes, instead of one that blames the weatherman.
A government that will invest in public transport all across the country, connecting towns and villages, and reducing gridlock in our cities.
A government that aims for Ireland to be the most sustainable, the most future proof, to be held up as the example when it comes to agriculture.
A government that will invest in offshore wind, providing energy security and bringing down energy costs.
A government that sees climate action not as a burden, but as an opportunity to ensure our children and grandchildren inherit a country with clear waters, clean air, and thriving biodiversity.
I feel so lucky to be able to raise my daughter on our family farm in west cork.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, but I have to say it takes a party like the Social Democrats to support their leader to continue leading when managing a one year old and a 5 hour commute to my constituency.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my parliamentary party, my team, our Party Staff, my family, and my constituents in Cork South West, for the grace and flexibility you’ve shown to allow me to be the best mother and leader I can be.
We need more women in Irish politics.
We need a critical mass to address the problems in so many areas.
If you’re watching this and thinking about getting involved, please do, we need more mná, we need you.
Politics is about choices.
And the choices that are made now will shape our future.
We need to ask ourselves, what kind of a country do we want to live in? One that is becoming increasingly cynical and divided?
Or one that is clear-eyed, open-hearted, outward-looking and inclusive?
With the Social Democrats, the choice is clear.
We believe the housing crisis can be solved, and we have the plans to do it. We believe in a rights based approach to disability, and will never stop fighting for it. We believe in creating an Ireland, where the economy thrives and no one is left behind.
We believe a United Ireland is fast approaching, and we’re ready to work together with communities in the North to make that a reality.
Between now and the next election, I imagine the government parties are going to try their best to convince you that our policies are too radical, not credible, maybe even dangerous.
And if we continue to climb in the polls, that scaremongering will step up a gear. They’ll spend their time trying to sow the seeds of fear of change.
We will spend that time building.
We will build on our evidence-based policies and positive vision for Ireland.
We will build on the legacy of the Connolly Coalition and strengthen relationships on the Left.
We will build on the excellent work our councillors and TDs are doing in their communities.
And when the next election comes, we will stand a candidate in every constituency in the country.
It’s not going to be easy, it’s never been easy, and we have never backed down from a challenge.
Or listened to the doubters who wrote this party off from the start.
I know what it feels like to be underestimated, dismissed and discounted. But, it’s only made me more determined to work harder, be braver and shout louder.
Because I am unashamedly ambitious about the future of this party – and the better country we can build together.
Thank you.