{"id":11394,"date":"2025-01-30T11:09:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T11:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=11394"},"modified":"2025-01-30T14:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T14:14:01","slug":"social-democrats-announce-new-spokespeople-in-enlarged-parliamentary-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/social-democrats-announce-new-spokespeople-in-enlarged-parliamentary-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Democrats announce new spokespeople in enlarged Parliamentary Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>The Social Democrats will be a strong voice for accountability, equality and sustainability\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Social Democrats acting leader Cian O\u2019Callaghan has today announced the party\u2019s new spokespeople.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the last election, the Social Democrats received an increased mandate and we now have an enlarged parliamentary party with which to hold the government to account.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur team of 10 TDs, 40 percent of whom are women, have hit the ground running and are already working hard in their communities and holding the government to account.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s announcement will build on that work and ensure that the actions of each minister, in this new government, are being closely examined and interrogated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is incredibly important. In any democracy, it is imperative that a strong Opposition is in place to hold government to account.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis government has gotten off to a very bad start. It has done a deal with Michael Lowry, attempted to erode Opposition speaking time and has failed to prioritise gender equality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Social Democrats will stand firmly against any attempts to diminish or stymie the role of the Opposition in the D\u00e1il. We will be a strong voice for accountability, equality and sustainability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c<\/strong>Our role will be constructive \u2013 robustly holding this Government to account while also proposing alternative solutions to the many problems this country faces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new parliamentary party spokespeople are:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Party leader and Disability<\/strong>: Holly Cairns<br \/>\n<strong>Deputy Leader and Finance<\/strong>: Cian O\u2019Callaghan<br \/>\n<strong>Justice, Homes Affairs and Migration<\/strong>: Gary Gannon<br \/>\n<strong>Climate, Environment, Energy and Transport; Agriculture, Agriculture, Food, Fisheries, and the Marine<\/strong>: Jennifer Whitmore<br \/>\n<strong>Housing, Local Government and Heritage<\/strong>: Rory Hearne<br \/>\n<strong>Health<\/strong>: P\u00e1draig Rice<br \/>\n<strong>Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation; Defence, International Affairs and Trade; Enterprise, Tourism and Employment<\/strong>: Sin\u00e9ad Gibney<br \/>\n<strong>Social Protection, Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht; Mental Health<\/strong>: Liam Quaide<br \/>\n<strong>Children and Equality; Youth; Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport<\/strong>: Aidan Farrelly<br \/>\n<strong>Education; Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science<\/strong>: Jen Cummins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Social Democrats will be a strong voice for accountability, equality and sustainability\u00a0 Social Democrats acting leader Cian O\u2019Callaghan has today announced the party\u2019s new spokespeople. \u201cAt the last election, the Social Democrats received an increased mandate and we now have an enlarged parliamentary party with which to hold the government to account. \u201cOur team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cian-ocallaghan","category-news","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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