Cian O’Callaghan

Meet Cian

Cian O’Callaghan is Deputy Leader of the Social Democrats and a TD for Dublin Bay North.

Cian was first elected to Dáil Eireann in 2020 having represented his local community as a councillor since 2009.

As housing spokesperson, Cian’s top priority is tackling the housing and homelessness crisis. He has consistently held the Government to account over their failure to deal with record levels of rents, record levels of homelessness, and record house prices which are locking a whole generation out of homeownership.

Cian has used his time in the Dáil to present practical solutions to the housing crisis.

He has introduced bills to increase the delivery of social and affordable homes, ban exploitative sex for rent practices and give greater protections to renters. He has also put forward hundreds of amendments to legislation on a range of issues including tackling vacancy, prioritising affordable housing, putting a stop to bulk-buying of homes by investment funds, and ending no-fault evictions.

In previous generations, when we had far fewer resources available, the Irish State was able to build tens of thousands of affordable homes in communities that are still thriving to this day. There is no good reason why we cannot do the same now.

Cian’s Priorities

• Build tens of thousands of social and affordable homes each year.
• Eradicate homelessness using a ‘Housing First’ strategy.
• Ensure that children with disabilities are not left waiting months and even years for an Assessment of Need and vital disability supports.
• Tackling climate change and protecting our biodiversity for generations to come.
• Build cohesive communities with high quality amenities that will thrive in the years to come.
• Establish a public model of childcare to ensure safe, affordable, and high quality childcare is available for all children.