Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has hailed the party\u2019s impressive local election results \u2013 and said the party is well placed for any coming general election.<\/p>\n
Deputy Cairns said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Social Democrats are on course to nearly double the number of councillors we elected in 2019, from 19 to at least 35.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe party has made gains all over the country. In Dublin City Council, the Social Democrats doubled our number of councillors, from five to 10, and we are now the second largest party on the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Kildare, we have nearly doubled our number of councillors, from four to seven. In Wicklow, we tripled our number of councillors from one to three \u2013 all of whom were first-time candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have tripled our number of councillors on Cork County Council; made a breakthrough in Cork City Council; and doubled our number of councillors in Limerick City Council and Galway City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put the party\u2019s performance into perspective, we won 19 seats across the entire country in 2019 and are now on course to have 15 councillors in Dublin alone \u2013 with a number of our other candidates in Dublin narrowly missing out on seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe party\u2019s hugely impressive performance is even more notable given our low level of incumbent candidates and the very large proportion of first-time candidates we ran in this election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear, given our outstanding performance, that the party\u2019s inclusive and positive message resonated with people at the doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to our candidates, all of whom worked so hard throughout this campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese election results demonstrate the growing level of support across the country for the Social Democrats; the high calibre of our candidates; and mean we are well placed to fight the general election\u00a0when\u00a0it\u00a0comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
June 10, 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has hailed the party\u2019s impressive local election results \u2013 and said the party is well placed for any coming general election. Deputy Cairns said: \u201cThe Social Democrats are on course to nearly double the number of councillors we elected in 2019, from 19 to at least 35. \u201cThe party has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[387,400,530,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-councillors","category-holly-cairns","category-local-elections","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n