Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of People Before Profit, I commend the four newly elected Deputies. It is not an easy thing to put one's name on a ballot paper and stick one's head above the parapet. There is a lot of hard work involved and the new Deputies set themselves up for a lot of responsibility and expectation on behalf of the constituents who elected them. It is a brave thing and the four Deputies deserve commendation on putting themselves forward and taking on the responsibility and privilege of being an elected representative in this House. I also commend all of those who put themselves forward who were not elected, and all the hard work that they and their teams put in over the past while.

There are many things one could say about the recent by-elections. I do not want to take away from the achievement of those who were elected or who ran, but it should be a concern to all of us, some three or six months away from a general election, that there was such an abysmally low turnout. Notwithstanding the political difference that we will and should debate over the next few months on key issues such as housing, the health service, infrastructure and inequality in our society, we also all have a great responsibility to make ourselves relevant to the almost 75% of the electorate who did not turn out and who did not engage. I do not blame them. We all have to take collective responsibility for that. The sense of disengagement and disillusionment with the political system felt by may was palpable on the doors. I am sure those who were elected would acknowledge that. We have a job to prove ourselves as relevant to making a difference to the lives of huge numbers of people who feel disenfranchised by our political system. That should be a solemn responsibility for us to do better over the coming months as we head into a general election.

Having said all that, well done to the four Deputies.

See this speech in context