Social Democrats will not enter government 'to make up the numbers', says Holly Cairns

The Social Democrats will not enter government “for the sake of it” or to make up the numbers, party leader Holly Cairns said as MPs and candidates gathered for the traditional early brainstorming session.

Ms Cairns said the Social Democrats would field as many candidates as possible in the next general election, with names now selected for around half of the constituencies.

“I didn’t enter politics to join the opposition,” she said. “Our goal is to enter government, but we won’t enter government for the sake of it, to be a figurehead. What we want is to see the Social Democrats get the largest mandate in government and that’s our goal for now,” she said, adding that they had to “keep their fingers crossed” at this point.

Ms Cairns hit back at Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who said her party was among those advocating a narrative of state failure. “I heard the Tánaiste on the radio and I was surprised to hear him say that,” she said.

“It is extremely frustrating to see this government and successive governments miss opportunities when we have a booming economy, record employment and a huge budget surplus,” she said, adding that this coincided with record levels of homelessness, “stretched” disability services and growing child poverty.

“The prospect of being able to turn our policies and ideas into reality for our communities seems within reach,” she said, promising that the party would “speak frankly” to voters, not promise everything and that certain policies should be prioritised.

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“This is not a failed state, it’s a failure of government,” she said. “(Mr. Martin) can say he thinks we’re highlighting a failed state, but the reality is it’s a failure of government that these things have happened.”

The party is centre-left and the approach of the current government and successive governments has been a failure, she said.

The Cork South West MP said that after the last election he walked away from negotiations with the Government because of a “tried, tested and failed” housing policy that was on the table at the time.

Asked whether her party would be interested in engaging with the Greens and others after the election, but before the substantial programme of government negotiations began, she said her party would talk to everyone after the election, but the focus was not on who they would talk to first.

Cairns said it “doesn’t matter” whether the election is held in February or November. “What matters is what’s on the table for voters between now and election day,” she said, adding that the party’s clear goal was to end up in government.

She did not answer a question about whether she would encourage supporters to join Labour, with the two parties historically linked with a potential merger due to their strong political similarities. She would favour a “vote left, transfer left” approach, she said.

She said there was a very clear proposal to the people that would not involve big tax cuts but huge investments in public services.

According to her, the party’s priorities are housing, health, climate, disability and childcare, with investments in the non-profit housing sector and an end to agreements that favor investment funds. The Social Democrats will launch a plan for affordable housing in the coming weeks.

The party is promising to increase maternity benefits to €350 a week, rejecting the government’s “waffling” over one-off benefits in the first month after a baby is born. She said the coalition’s statements on a public childcare model were late.

She said disability services were “on their knees” and action and political will were needed to address this.