It is a tradition of the Labour Party to end its national conference with a rendition of the socialist call to arms The Red Flag.
Led by Dublin Fingal Cllr Rob O’Donoghue, the 73rd national conference ended on Sunday afternoon with the song, an hour later than planned and after a heated debate on the last of 89 motions.
After a close vote, delegates agreed to move their conference from an annual meeting to every second year.
Just 70 people attended the last session after 600 delegates turned up for the leader’s speech on Saturday night, when party leader Ivana Bacik told them the housing crisis was the civil rights issue of this generation.
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She pledged that a government with Labour in it would transform the Land Development Agency into a State construction company to provide homes, with one million over a decade including 50,000 new builds and 50,000 retrofits annually.
The party would reinstate a ban on no fault evictions and introduce a new fair deal scheme to support older people to remain living at home. Labour would “end direct provision and deliver a fair and effective policy on migration”.
She described Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s resignation as “the ultimate vote of no confidence in his own Government”. And she highlighted Ireland’s sense of solidarity and “strong voice in condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza”, as she renewed her call for the State “to break diplomatic and trade links with Israel”.
Ms Bacik also made a number of climate change pledges including a reduction in electricity prices of up to €700 a year through more renewable energy and restrictions on SUVs.
Finance spokesman Ged Nash criticised new Fine Gael leader Simon Harris, saying, “We don’t believe the TikTok taoiseach will transform anything, he will merely tinker around the edges”.
He added: “I think Simon Harris will be a little bit like the yappy dog who’s chasing the car. If he caught the car, he won’t know what to do with it. I don’t believe that Mr Harris will have the kind of vision that you need to transform the way government is done at the top. We’ve seen no evidence of this in terms of how he has operated as Minister over the last few years.”
The taoiseach-in-waiting came in for further criticism during a debate on education when Labour Youth delegate Mike O’Connor claimed the Minister for Further Education had launched the same college accommodation plan three times. Mr O’Connor said 1,254 beds were promised but Government funding was available for only 521 beds.
But former Fine Gael minister for special education Josepha Madigan faced most criticism from angry delegates over cuts to the summer programme for pupils with special needs, and failures in the provision of services for thousands of children.
Teacher and Carrigaline, Co Cork local election candidate John O’Regan told the conference that funding for the programme had effectively been halved in the past two years. He said Ms Madigan “sails into the sunset” the day after details of the new summer programme were released, with funding for trips and activities halved over the past two years to €120-€180 this year.
But party delegates left the conference enthused that they could maintain their 56 council seats and even increase up to 70, convinced that Labour always does better than the polls predict.
Dublin Bay North TD Aodhán Ó Riordáin is the party’s Dublin candidate in the European elections while sociologist Niamh Hourigan, sister of Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan, will be the party’s Ireland South candidate. The selection convention for the Midlands Northwest candidate will be held in April.
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