Soc Dems launch election campaign

The Social Democrats have launched their local and European election campaign on a simple message: change.

The party will be running 29 candidates across all local authority areas in Dublin this year, up from 22 in 2019.

The party is also running Sinéad Gibney for the European seat.

Northsider Cian O’Callaghan is serving as the party director of elections.

The Dublin Bay North TD said the Soc Dems’ biggest priority in local office will be “to improve the delivery of key public services, which drive equality, promote sustainability and raise living standards for everyone in our communities.”

“County and city councils play a crucial role in building sustainable communities. Our election manifesto sets out how our party’s councillors will approach local authority services and projects over the next five years, in areas such as housing, service delivery, youth, disability and the environment.”

Party leader Holly Cairns said that people are “sick of the same old ways”, and expressed confidence that the party will pick up voters on June 7th.

“Next month’s elections are taking place at a time of growth for the Social Democrats. I am delighted that, between both elections – locals and European – voters will now have a Social Democrats candidate on the ballot paper in every county in the country.”

“We are looking forward to having a voice in Europe and adding to our existing team of 22 hardworking councillors,” she said.

“I believe that people around the country are tired of the same old ways of doing politics and are ready for change. We want to be part of that change by seeing as many Social Democrats candidates as possible elected to local authorities and the European Parliament on June 7.”

In their local election manifesto, the party state they want to use the “Fingal schools model”, which involves co-locating school facilities on sites made available by local authorities, as one of their main ideas for local government.

The manifesto stated it also wants to make people with disabilities a “priority” and strived to improve local services.

Clear commitments to people with disabilities should be embedded in council strategies and plans, including County Development Plans, and where we have Councillors elected, we will lead the charge on this” the manifesto read.

On the European front, the party said they want to build, unsurprisingly, a “Social Democratic Europe.”

The party said that should they get an MEP elected, they would “advocate for Ireland’s military neutrality and safeguard our opt-outs from EU common defence policies,” and “enhance rights, protections and supports for asylum seekers within the EU.”