People Before Profit open to left council coalition

People Before Profit’s 2 councillors have indicated they are open to teaming up with other parties of the left in order to run Dublin City Council.

Labour announced on Monday that they were pulling out of a planned progressive coalition consisting of Social Democrats, Sinn Féin and the Greens after failing to come to an agreement over Local Property Tax.

The proposed coalition would have had enough to reach the 32-seat majority needed on Dublin City Council, but Labour’s withdrawal now leaves the other three parties short.

People Before Profit’s 2 councillors, Hazel De Nortúin and the freshly-elected Conor Reddy, have indicated they are open to taking part in the coalition of the left in a bid to lock Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out.

De Nortúin and Reddy were not part of initial discussions that were taking place between the Social Democrats, Sinn Féin, Labour and the Green Party but had been speaking informally to other councillors on the left about what a Left alliance could deliver.

Reddy said “councils in Ireland have been divested of most of their powers and have had funding from central government cut dramatically over the last decade. This new Council, elected months out from a General Election, should push to change the game entirely.”

“With a working majority between the parties of the broad left, it could challenge government by presenting an ambitious programme for Dublin City, a statement of intent, while demonstrating in principle, how the left could work together to deliver real change.”

Reddy said that by Labour “walking away” from the potential coalition, the party has shown “they have no interest in being part of an alternative to Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil”

“This should be remembered when a general election comes,” he said.

De Nortúin, who has served on Dublin City Council since 2016 said “now that Labour have excluded themselves from the possibility of a left alliance on the council, it is on other parties of the left to rule out agreements with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and to pursue other paths to a “progressive council”.”

She laid out People Before Profit’s demands for taking part in a left-led council, and stated that the party are “open to discussing these possibilities with some of those involved in the original discussions.”

“What we want to be very clear on, however, is that we do not want to horse-trade or barter, we want to have a principled discussion on the future of our City and the measures we can take to improve it for everyone – on housing, transport, the environment, arts, sport, culture and the whole host of services provided by Dublin City Council.”

TD Bríd Smith said “It is clear that Labour are once again planning to work with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. People Before Profit are willing to work with others on progressive principles and proposals such as bringing waste services back into Council control and direct Counci building of public housing on public land.”

“We cannot however agree to Council budgets for five years that we haven’t even seen. We hope that others will share our views and principles and we can work together to improve services for the people of Dublin.”

Even if People Before Profit did agree to join the coalition, it would still be 3 seats short of a majority.

In that instance, the coalition could reach out to Right2Change’s sole councillor Pat Dunne as well as Independent Left councillor John Lyons, as well as left-wing independent councillor Cieran Perry in order to secure the majority.

Social Democrats are taking the initiative on the proposed alliance, with their 10 councillors making them the 2nd-biggest grouping on Dublin City Council.

Sinn Féin have 9 seats and the Greens have 8 seats, meaning that the three parties do not have the numbers to go it alone.