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LAST UPDATE | 24 Mar 2022
THE NEWEST LABOUR TD, Ivana Bacik, has been confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Alan Kelly.
Bacik, who was elected in the Dublin Bay South by-election in July 2021, was the only contender for the party leadership after potential candidates Duncan Smith and Aodhán Ó’Ríordáin ruled themselves out.
There was shock after Kelly – who took over the party in April 2020 – resigned at the beginning of March after Labour TDs “lost collective confidence” in him.
Bacik was confirmed as the party’s 14th leader shortly after midday, a few minutes after nominations officially closed.
Under Labour Party rules, only TDs can contest the party’s leadership and if only one candidate is put forward, they are automatically elected as leader.
Bacik sought nominations from Labour constituency chairs and councillors for the leadership, having officially announced her candidacy on 7 March.
Bacik’s candidacy was proposed by Kelly and seconded by the party’s five other five TDs and four senators. She was also endorsed by 29 of Labour’s 39 constituency councils.
‘Building a better future’
Speaking in Dublin this afternoon, Bacik said: “I am honoured, excited and, I confess, quite overwhelmed.”
She said she was grateful for the support of party members and paid tribute to her predecessor Kelly, calling him her “friend and comrade”.
“I know the ambition you have for our future and for how our party can shape our future for the better,” she told a press conference in Ringsend.
“I sincerely hope that I can repay the trust you have placed in me.”
In her speech, she also referenced John and Pat Hume, speaking about the impotence of a state that “works for the unity of the people of Ireland.”
“I didn’t become a political activist because I had all the answers – and I still don’t. For me, politics is about building a better future.
“It’s not contrived shouting matches or tearing people apart to score a political point.”
Bacik also said we “are entering an era of serious politics”, adding: “We have big problems to solve, they are global.”
She called for an immediate mini-budget “to address the cost-of-living crisis”.
“Ireland needs a pay rise. We in Labour know that an increase in take-home pay is the best way to help working people and families keep up with rising costs,” she said.
In the 2021 by-election, Bacik beat out Fine Gael councillor James Geoghegan and Sinn Féin Senator Lynn Boylan for the seat vacated by former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.
Kelly’s resignation
When he announced his resignation on 2 March, Kelly said that the party had struggled to push forward Labour policies due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I did find it difficult to get momentum, I genuinely found it quite difficult. It was a strange time for the country. I think we supported the government of the day in a national crisis, we didn’t do populism,” he said.
He added that Labour is still “very much associated” with the coalition with Fine Gael from 2011 to 2016 and it was very difficult for “those of us who were involved in that government to move on”.
“I have to acknowledge that we haven’t been able to move on as a party in the opinion polls, and I have a deep regret about that.”
With reporting from Press Association and Órla Ryan
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What happens when she loses her seat the next GE?
@Thomas Harrington: it almost seems inevitable.
Joining Fine Gael in coalition and throwing their weight behind the Irish Wster fiasco was the straw that broke the camels back for them as a party to be taken seriously by the very people they purport to support, ie. the lower income working class. They are a million miles away from their roots and it will take a monumental effort for them to re-establish this.
@Frank Cauldhame: There will be no return for them. The next generation will make sure of that Frank.
@David Corrigan: Looks like it alright Dave, even their title “Labour” has become a misleading oxymoron.
@Thomas Harrington: she won’t
@Thomas Harrington: she won’t.
@Frank Cauldhame: could never vote for them again. All their principals were sold out to stay in power. IW debacle and the whole pension age thing just doesn’t sit right with me, they will never get into power again I hope
@Frank Cauldhame: it’s easy being populist. In time the young will realise we need leaders
@Thomas Harrington: I can’t see that happening. She’s an exceptional candidate and well liked in her constituency.
@Frank Cauldhame: no, it is a party of working people. The term ‘working class,’ so beloved of the Provos, actually refers to people who would run a mile from work.
Or look for a free taxi, but you know what I mean.
@Rúraíocht: So called Labour were populist when Gilmore, Burton, Howlin, Rabbitte, promise It was Labour’s way or Frankfurts way. We know how that turned out. They became more Blueshirt than the Blueshirts. The agreed to every austerity measure interduced. From taking medical cards from the most vulnerable to the fiasco of Irish water. Never again.
@John Mulligan: Yes it means you are narrow minded and ign orant. I and all my family consider ourselves working class. I worked from I was 13 as did my husband. Our children all had after school jobs and thankfully have worked since just like most of the people we grew up with. Your comment was completely incorrect and a prime example of the cohort who support and hold the reins of Labour at the moment.
@Don Knox: She most definitely will.
@JMcB: Spot on, they are so far removed from their founding principles implemented by Connolly and Larkin. They need to scrub the tarnish of FG off of themselves and reboot.
@John Mulligan: like yourself,
@John Mulligan: exceptional ? Remember she was in the Seanad when all the austerity was being pushed through with her blessing
May as well be the new violinist on the Titanic.
@l: Ivana .. working class woman of the people .. not. The wettest of wet wipe wokster.
@Bri Lyons: From the smoked salmon socialist party to the caviar communist party.
@l: if she can play the violin that may be very handy soon.
@l: being able to play the violin might be useful. Soon.
They should publish an obituary for the party while they’re at it.
@Niall Power: do you think Sinn Fein should rule out accepting any support from Labour in forming the next government? It would really show how principled SF are that they would turn down the 7 Labour votes and stay in opposition than have to rely on them to get into power. We need to know this now and not after the election.
@Ciaran O’Mara: If needs be Sinn Féin should form a government that includes labour rather than a government that includes FG or FF.
Bye bye labour
It doesn’t make any difference who the leader is. It was unforgivable what Joan and Labour did in the past with the Irish water scandal and the austerity support policy. I would imagine the next election should be the final nail in the coffin for Labour.
As a worker- I don’t see how she has any policies, whatsoever, which will be of interest to me or make one iota of difference to me. Therefore, I see absolutely no reason to vote for her or her colleagues. Its almost ironic that its called The Labour Party- when it all seems to be based on identity politics etc- and not on pushing an agenda that supports workers and their pay and rights.
@Shane McCarrick: This is why I find it hard to see how Labour have any role in Irish politics going forward.
They’ve long since abandoned the workers and their focus now seems to be on social issues affecting the urban middle class which is already a crowded space with FG and the Greens.
It’s like someone had a plan for transforming Labour around 2005 during the boom years and they’ve failed to adjust it at any point since.
Without a contest?
I believe there was some shady characters from south Dublin involved in this coronation
@Liam Ó hAodha: well, as their leader has to be a TD, of which they have 7, and one of those is the outgoing leader, leaving only 6. Furthered by the assumption of needed to be proposed and seconded by a TD, this means in reality only 2 candidates could ever run, at best.
Gilmore & Rabbitte destroyed Labour
@trebloc01: also Joan Burton and Alan Kelly
This is actually great news. It will finally finish off the “Labour” party. Such a shame in a way but they really have to go.
Labour do not represent those who actually labour for a living so the name should really disappear and be recycled at some point in the future by a party that actually does represent working people. Current Labour does the opposite. They actually attack ordinary working people and their record shows that.
Remember when their slogan was “standing up for working families”. At that time they were actually kicking them when they were down. Of course there was the whole water charges fiasco but there was much worse beyond that.
Two examples.
First they facilitated the Fine Gael/ Labour cash grab on ordinary workers’ pensions with the pension levy. This was a straightforward theft of money out of ordinary workers pension funds, money many had been scrimping and saving for years, decades even. And this at a time when pension funds were already in trouble. This had a real and tangible and ongoing effect on the pensions of workers with the heaviest burden falling on lower paid workers with smaller pensions. By the way, it is interesting to note that this theft of workers money only fell on private sector pensions with no effect on public pensions (TDs, Senators, Teachers, Civil Servants etc.). It was a disgraceful move that still affects hundreds of thousands of workers today.
Second, and this one is almost unbelievable when you see the detail, they facilitated the abolition of top slicing relief on redundancy lump sum payments. This relief existed to ease the taxation burden on redundancy payments received by workers losing their jobs. The relief was most targeted at lower payed workers, in fact the less you were paid the more relief you got. Higher paid workers gained very little benefit from this relief. It essentially worked by ensuring that workers who paid less tax on theor earnings paid less tax on their lump sums. Low paid workers paid less tax so paid less on lump sum. Removing this relief was a savage attack on low paid workers while at the same time having little or no effect on higher paid workers. Standing up for working families? I think not. At that point I think Labour lost the moral right to use labour in its name.
What a shame.
It’s Frankfurts way or Labours way.
Rejoice working people of Ireland for your saviour is at hand! Oh wait, false alarm. It’s just another posturing, highly-paid, upper middle-class academic who for someone so well-educated doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the word ‘labour’. Or maybe does but finds it politically expedient to hijack it! She’ll probably adopt a new, catchy slogan to help improve the party’s fortunes. ‘To oblivion and beyond’ sounds good to me…
The woman who expressed her solidarity with the women in Ukraine but deliberately chose to ignore the men who are staying behind to defend their country and their children’s future. I don’t know how any man could vote for a party led by by such an extreme misandrist.
I’m so disappointed by this, to quote The Doors
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Bye bye Labour it was nice knowing you when you were a genuine labour party!!!
Labour. The party who forgot its legacy was to protect the working people of this country. And by putting Bacik at the helm has rang the final death knell R.IP
I remember her saying on Newstalk in reference to gender pay: “Woman are being discriminated against for working less hours than men”
I remember hearing her say on Newstalk radio “Woman are being discriminated against for working less hours than men” on the topic of gender pay. Ridiculous, of course working more hours deserves more pay.
@Nirvana Barbarossa: that’s a significant misdirection there, easy to do that with an out of context quote though, so no kudos to you.
@Míchael Búrké: no misdirection, that is exactly what she said, word for word.
No comment
Joan Burton killed Labour Party for good
Brilliant news. She has her principles intact and she has huge experience in the Seanad and so on, and it’s no harm that she’s new to the Dáil. I don’t get how ex-Labour supporters don’t wish her well, surely you want the party to revive, and she is the best/only shot?
@Dylan Cotter: They need to be put away for good as they can’t be trusted.
@Dylan Cotter: sure isn’t that what you say in the run up to an election
@Dylan Cotter: She was one of the elite who attended the celebration party for Katherine Zappone’s (jobs for the boys/girls) “appointment” , that in itself say enough.
@Dylan Cotter: Bacik stated it’s time to move on. Like Michael Martin who stated there was no bank bailout, Bacik seems to have the same memory loss as Martin. Labour’s way or Frankfurts way…We know how that turned out.
@Dylan Cotter: There are many reasons why they’re ex-Labour supporters and she encapsulates several of them…
@Dylan Cotter: exoerience in the Seanad, she was there & approved all the the cruel austerity measures which went through the Seanad when Labour were in Government so she is part of that cohurt so no won’t wish her well
God help them if she’s the best they can find.
WHO
@Ger Murray: World Health Organisation? That’s off topic.
“Ireland needs a pay rise”, and who’s going to pay for it? I guess this underlines that we’re back to the 70s politics.
Bad decision by Ivana. She should have stayed with local politics.
If Labour can survive the next election they will be able to compete at the one after that for the votes of all the disillusioned SF voters
A bit like being promoted to Captain of Titanic, put in charge of a doomed operation.
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