Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Congratulations to all of those newly elected and returned TDs, as we take our seats today for the first time in the Thirty-fourth Dáil. I am immensely proud of my Labour Party colleagues sitting around me in our newly enlarged parliamentary party. Deputies Alan Kelly, Ged Nash, Duncan Smith and I are delighted and thrilled to be joined by seven new Labour Party Deputies, namely, Deputies Eoghan Kenny, Conor Sheehan, Ciarán Ahern, Marie Sherlock, George Lawlor, Rob O'Donoghue and Mark Wall. We are immensely proud of our colleagues, who are hard-working, principled, left-wing representatives, rooted in their communities and driven by their values. To all who voted for the Labour Party on 29 November, I thank you, and a personal thanks to those who voted for me in Dublin Bay South. It is an honour to be re-elected to serve my community. It is the honour of a lifetime for all of us in this House to be elected or re-elected to serve.

I pay tribute to all our Labour Party activists and campaigners who gave their time and commitment during the recent campaign and to our colleagues who missed out on election this time and who are not joining us here today.

For those of us who are here today, this is a proud day, but it is not about us, nor should it be. For as long as the Thirty-fourth Dáil sits, my focus and that of my colleagues around me is on the communities that we represent and are honoured to serve. We must remain focused on our communities, which have been failed by many of the policies and priorities of the outgoing Government. They have been failed on housing and healthcare.

All of us, over the course of the campaign, will have heard intimate and, in many cases, heartbreaking personal stories from those who we have met while canvassing. I think of the elderly man who told me, in tears, about facing the emigration of his second adult child over Christmas. They are adult children who could not see a future for themselves in this country. I think of the older woman who told me of her great distress at having spent weeks with her husband, whose condition deteriorated in a hospital that was desperately understaffed. I think of the many parents I met who could not access disability services for their children or special needs places in schools, who simply could not access a childcare place for a newborn baby or toddler, or who are facing enormous difficulty in getting back to work. These are people who have been let down by the State. They deserve to be treated with the respect. They deserve honest politics. They need and want a message of hope. Hope can be in short supply sometimes.

Serious challenges face our country and planet. The housing crisis in Ireland continues to ravage our communities. It leaves so many families vulnerable to eviction. It starves our public services of staff. It causes chronic understaffing in our schools and hospitals. It is perpetuating the national scandal of 4,500 children without a home. We see a lack of childcare and school places, overcrowded hospitals with lengthening waiting lists and trolleys in corridors, and of course the existential threat posed by climate change. This week, headlines have been dominated by the closure of Holyhead Port, the consequence of an extreme weather event reminding us of the fragility of our way of life. Many lose hope when they see the war and conflict around the world, with the displacement of millions in Sudan, the savage bombardment of Ukraine by Putin and the genocide that continues to unfold in Gaza. That, Tánaiste, is why we need to see the occupied territories Bill enacted. Regardless of whoever is in the next government, it needs to be enacted as a matter of urgency. I was proud to stand with others seeking that enactment outside Leinster House this morning.

Over the term of this Dáil, the focus of the Labour Party is on seeking to achieve an active State that will transform lives, will be able to relieve poverty and can give hope. In the general election, we campaigned for a constructive programme to build a sustainable Ireland that protects and restores our environment through urgent and ambitious State action. We campaigned for a fairer Ireland where every child has the best start in life through the provision of a publicly provided childcare and early years scheme, and an equal Ireland which rejects division and values diversity.

In the coming term, a choice awaits Members of this House. We can work collaboratively, from opposition or government, towards a vision of Ireland based on that concept of an active State which takes responsibility to deliver housing, childcare and climate action and public transport. Alternatively, we can see an Ireland that is bereft of any coherent vision, seeks simply to keep doing more of the same, and does not seek to change policies. We would see short-termism ruling the roost, where a better Ireland will not be built for everyone. For our part in the Labour Party, as a centre-left party, at every opportunity we will tenaciously put forward the case for an activist State that will build affordable homes, will reach climate targets and will construct a modern connected transport system.

We must be honest with people that to achieve that vision of an active State, we need a solid tax base to achieve that level of public investment. In the election that has just passed, the Labour Party never entered the tax bidding war. We did not seek to bribe people with their own money because we believe in investing in public services. We believe the State must deliver the services that people need. Children need care, people need public transport and people need the roll-out of a massive retrofitting programme. We need to see the State enabling ambition at all stages of life. We need it to invest in offshore wind development and in the sort of ambitious climate programmes that will be needed to meet our targets. We called for a fair tax system, not for narrowing the tax base. We wanted to see an enhanced obligation on those who are asset-wealthy to contribute so that we have the resources to build, teach and grow, because we cannot return to the reckless McCreevy economics of the Celtic tiger years.

Despite the challenges, we in the Labour Party are excited about the prospect of building a better Ireland. We focused in the election campaign on what we can do constructively to build a better Ireland for all and on the priorities that are so clear. We focused on housing as a priority, for example by developing the Land Development Agency into a properly resourced State construction company that can deliver homes directly and contribute to the goal that we all share of building at least 50,000 new homes a year, a goal that is absolutely necessary to meet the urgent need for homes in our communities. On climate, we called for urgent State action to accelerate decarbonisation and deliver a just transition. On our health services, we called for the roll-out of free GP care to every child in the State, so no parent has to delay a doctor's appointment due to cost. On children's rights, we put forward a clear and costed vision for a public childcare scheme. We are the party of work and of the trade union movement. On workers' rights, we put forward a clear programme for change to tackle the scourge of low pay across our communities, and to protect workers' rights to organise, to bargain collectively and to join a trade union. We put forward a plan to address the cost-of-living crisis, to use the machinery of the State to drive down energy and insurance prices and remove what are effectively taxes on the poor, which are surcharges on those who pay by instalment.

We believe that our vision of an active State can transform lives. We know that markets fail and that the State needs to intervene to protect those who are most vulnerable in our society. We have always been a party that is serious about delivering change. Whatever the outcome of current talks on government formation, we have a serious intent to work with others over the course of this Dáil term to progress our plans to deliver on that vision of an active State. During the election campaign, I called for the formation of a common platform of the left to see the implementation of centre-left and environmental policies and to deliver for communities. As the political arm of the trade union movement, we understand the value of unity and the strength of numbers. We intend to continue to work on that common left platform over the term ahead because we know that when our movements unite on issues, as we did on marriage equality, the repeal of the eighth amendment and Sláintecare, the establishment will move with us. We intend to keep working on that common left platform and to continue to work to the goal of a centre-left-led government.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I wish all TDs of the Thirty-fourth Dáil well. Our work starts now to build better together. I end by thanking all the staff in Leinster House and wishing everyone a peaceful Christmas and happy new year.

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