The prospect of the Social Democrats entering government “feels within reach”, Holly Cairns has said.
The leader said her party would go to the electorate, making it clear that it wanted to be part of the next ruling coalition.
Speaking at her party’s think-in in Dublin ahead of the resumption of the Dáil, Ms Cairns said the Social Democrats would be running candidates in just over half the constituencies in Ireland.
She said it was the ultimate objective to run in every constituency in the future, but she acknowledged they were still trying to build foundations as a small party.
“We want to be very clear that we want to go into government,” she said.
“It’s been extremely frustrating to watch this government and successive governments miss opportunities when we have a booming economy, record employment and a huge surplus, to see that kind of along with 14,000 homeless people, including 4,000 children, threadbare disability services, and actually an increase of 15% in child poverty in this government’s term alone.
“I think the kind of prospect of being able to turn our policies and our ideas into a reality for our communities feels within reach.
“So, we’re very excited to get stuck in, we’ve candidates all over the country who are out campaigning.
“We’ve a very clear proposal to the people – we’re not going to promise the sun, moon and stars. I think people are sick of empty promises.
“We’re not going to promise large tax cuts and huge investment in public services.
“Our aim has always been clear, and it still is – we want investment, we want investment in public services to try to lift people out of poverty. Our priorities are housing, healthcare, climate, disability and childcare.”
She added: “Absolutely, we want to go into government. I know I didn’t go into politics to go into opposition. I certainly realised the importance of opposition during my time in it. But, absolutely, we want to turn our policies into a reality.
“Our aim is to go into government, but we won’t go into government for the sake of it to make up the numbers. What we want is to see the biggest mandate for the Social Democrats in government as possible. So that’s our focus for now.”
Ms Cairns said her party, which she described as “centre left”, would be prepared to talk to any other parties about coalition permutations post-election.
In terms of the election, she said the Social Democrats would encourage left-leaning voters to “vote left and transfer left”, but she said her party would not be giving specific advice for its supporters to give their second preferences to Labour Party candidates.
On the Apple back taxes windfall, Ms Cairns expressed a preference for the money to be invested in housing.
“I find it kind of amusing to see (government) parties who spent eight years and €10 million fighting this case to try and get the money back, kind of now saying what they’d like to spend the money on,” she added.
“But I think the elephant in the country is housing. We would invest that money in affordable purchase homes.”
Ms Cairns said a general election “can’t come soon enough”.
She said Ireland was not a failed state, but that there had been a “failure of government”.
“We’ll be straight talking with them (the electorate) about what’s achievable and how you can’t have everything,” she said.
“We’re going to prioritise. We’re going to be straight with people. And we really want to kind of harness the momentum from the local elections. We almost doubled our councillors around the country, and every general election candidate selected all over the place who are out campaigning are really excited to try and get into Leinster House to represent their communities and turn our policies into a reality.”
