Holly Cairns has said she has high hopes for her party in elections this year as she reflected on her “rollercoaster” first full Dáil term as the Social Democrats’ new leader.
She said that the party’s red line issues if in a coalition government are to “the forefront” of her mind, stating that they would be healthcare reform plan Slaintecare, the approach to housing and climate change issues.
Ms Cairns also said the practice of implementing policies in government would be the main difference between her party and the Labour Party.
Since taking over as the leader of the Social Democrats in March, she has said her focus is on appealing to people who feel let down by other parties.
The Cork South West TD, who won her Dáil seat by a single vote, has emphasised repeatedly that it was not long ago when she felt disillusioned by Irish politics and now wants to appeal to that group.
The 33-year-old leader has expressed her ambition for the local and European elections this summer, stating that success for her would be growth of any kind.
Founded in July 2015, the party currently has six TDs and 19 councillors.
There appeared to be a surge in support for the Social Democrats immediately after Ms Cairns took the helm, to nine per cent, while more recently the party is around five per cent.
“It’s been definitely a rollercoaster, Catherine (Murphy) and Roisin (Shortall) stepping down was kind of a shock, and it all happened very quickly,” Ms Cairns said in an interview with PA.
“So I feel like it’s only now that I’m kind of getting into the swing of it. I still get nervous about Leaders’ Questions.”
After nine months as leader, Ms Cairns is still of the opinion that the Social Democrats and the Labour Party should not merge, and points out that the same question is not asked of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
She also said that the Labour Party’s decisions during their time in office would not be her party’s approach.
“Trust is the most important commodity in politics,” she said.
“Everybody understands that smaller parties have less of an impact on the overall kind of position of a Government.
“Nobody denies that. But when you go into government, there has to be certain red line issues for a party.
“And when they were in government, there were things like the privatisation of Bord Gais, the introduction of HAP (Housing Assistance Payment), penalising lone parent families. So it’s all well and good to say, ‘Oh they think they have the same policies as us’ – they don’t have the same practices.
“That’s the overall difference between us.
“Also, if people say ‘Look, we recognise that there were mistakes made and we’ll learn from those mistakes’ and try to move forward, that’s one thing. Saying ‘we completely stand over every single one of those decisions, we’re just not compatible in terms of our approach. It’s not an approach that we would ever take in government.”
Ms Cairns does acknowledge that parties in government need to decide on what issue they want to make progress on, possibly to the detriment of another, especially as coalition government will now be the norm in Ireland.
“Of course it’s all about that weighing up and those red line issues: what are the most important things to party, what principles can you not wane on in any way whatsoever, all of that stuff is absolutely at the forefront of my mind.
“And that is why my absolute focus now is starting with the local elections, we’ve got amazing candidates coming forward, to get as many of them elected, then when the general election comes around to get as many of them elected.”
Asked about what success would be for her party in those elections, she said that they are still selecting candidates but they want to “keep up with our own growth “.
“To increase basically the number of councillors and TDs as much as possible… And in terms of an exact figure, I’ll be completely honest, I don’t have an exact figure in my mind.”
She added: “Until we’ve offered more people the option of voting for the Social Democrats, I don’t think we really know what the appetite for that is there. To be realistic, it’s somewhat untested.
“So I’m kind of excited to see what happens and really hopeful.
“And obviously I know that all of these things depend on the mood of a particular election.
“I think that the tide is turning, there’s going to be change in Irish politics.
“It’s been a long time coming, but suddenly, it’s coming more quickly.”
In the main set-piece of the Dáil schedule, Leaders’ Questions, opposition leaders get to put the issues of the most importance to the Taoiseach or Tánaiste three times a week.
Asked about why her approach is more scripted than other leaders’, Ms Cairns said it is to get a specific answer from government though admits that does not always work.
“It’s incredibly frustrating, I think that’s the main word I’d use to describe them. Consistently, the Taoiseach and Tanaiste talk down the clock, and explain things over and over again that hasn’t been at all whatever asked for and just point blank refuse then, in essence, to answer the question directly.”
She added: “In Leaders’ Questions you are very much operating on the clock, and so it’s really important when you’re raising those issues to make sure you get all of the different points in and exactly within the time.
“So it’s to make sure that every single point is raised, because they’ll spend so much time saying something that you didn’t ask you try and counteract that in the question as well.
“It’s really an attempt to try and get a coherent response.
“We’re always trying to get an answer, essentially. We’re going in asking questions.”
She said that she still gets to work on the issues that she feels most passionate about as leader, and was “gutted” that legislation on legacy issues around mother and baby homes was completed before she was leader.
“I have to say I was gutted that when I went into the role, all of the legislation that we’d been working on had been completed because it’s something that I think I really would have liked to take to Leaders’ Questions.”
She said that if the Taoiseach had been “pushed on” the three draft laws, the birth information and tracing bill, the burials bill and the redress scheme, he “could not defend (them) because throughout the entire process, the Minister for Children was unable to defend them”.
