Why I became a Social Democrat

A COUPLE of weeks ago, I helped set up a new political party – the Social Democrats.

Along with two other TDs, Catherine Murphy and Stephen Donnelly, we hope to offer an honest, competent and fairer alternative to the Irish people.

Social democracy is about giving priority to good quality public services like health, education and transport. It’s also about fair taxation, a strong economy and honest politics.

It’s a vision for Ireland that we know many people share and over the coming months, we hope that people from all walks of Irish life will join with us in making this vision a reality. It’s been a very promising start with thousands of people already in touch.

A great many Irish people are disillusioned with the existing political parties and feel ignored. Some of the most common complaints you hear include,

“there is no party worth voting for

?,

“they’re all the same

?, or

“they’re only in it for themselves

?.

We want to change that.

Politics should be about serving the public interest, and not the interests of politicians.

The Social Democrats believe that politics can be a major force for good. But that can only happen if we reform the way politics is practiced and create an open and honest political system.

For example, we want to make ministers and senior civil servants accountable for their decisions, and when mistakes are made, there must be consequences for those who are responsible.

We want to stop the culture of political favours by ending the practice of politicians appointing judges. We need to make sure that taxpayers money is spent where it is most needed – not simply in the minister’s constituency.

For us too, political reform must be underpinned by a strong commitment to social justice and equality.

We know, for example, that the first five years in a child’s life are the most important, yet these years receive the least political attention and the least investment.

A major priority for the Social Democrats will be to ensure that every child gets the best possible start in life. That’s why we want to extend paid parental leave, focus on child health and provide better childcare.

We want to tackle the scandal of deprivation where one in eight children in our country lives in poverty. All children should have the right to reach their full potential and that, of course, also benefits society as a whole.

We want to promote an enterprise culture that encourages innovation and commercial success. And we want to ensure decent standards of employment.

We also want to end the absolute crisis of long housing waiting lists where a thousand children are now living in Dublin hotel rooms because there isn’t enough housing for them.

Most European countries already have a Social Democratic party. Indeed the most successful societies on Earth have had Social Democratic governments for most of the past 50 years.

They have much better public services than Ireland, more stable economies and healthier democracies as a result. Surely that’s something we should all be fighting for.

If you are interested in finding out more, check out www.socialdemocrats.ie.