Holly Cairns has been aware of the key date in November for months now. But for her it is November 22nd, not November 29th. That is the due date for the birth of her and her partner Barry Looney’s daughter. For the leader of a political party leading into a three-week election campaign, the clash is more than a consideration.
“It’s very tricky, obviously. In one way, I’m so excited because it’s our first baby, we can’t wait,” she says. “At the same time, I’m gutted by the timing for it to land in the same week, potentially, as polling day. It’s less than ideal, and it does pose a challenge for us as a party.”
Cairns will be in Dublin this week but will then spend the rest of the campaign in West Cork awaiting the birth. Deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan will step in for key moments, such as televised debates.
The Social Democrats won 35 seats in the local elections in June, almost double its 2019 total. The mercury has been rising in opinion polls too, giving a sense it is on an upward curve. Cairns won’t commit to a number but expects a sizeable increase in SocDem TDs in the 34th Dáil. “One thing I have learned from the last election is it’s really hard to predict what can change in three weeks,” she says.
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It’s a big moment for her. At 35, she is the youngest leader of any political party. Her rise to this point has been meteoric. She joined the Social Democrats only in 2018 after being involved in the Together for Yes campaign. That referendum was an entry portal for many of the party’s large core of young activists, attracted by its progressive policies and the fact that it was new. She won a council seat in Bantry in 2019 and then (against the grain) a Dáil seat in Cork South West the following year.
Having succeeded former co-leaders Róisín Shortall and Catherine Murphy at the helm, she admits she was very nervous initially but has since grown in confidence. For her the key is a new approach to politics, which can marry prosperity with fairness. “There’s a disconnect. The country is doing so well with record employment and record budgets, yet half a million adults are living in their childhood bedrooms and disability services are threadbare.”
So what’s the alternative? The first red line, she says, is its insistence on a full Minister for Disability. Which department would go? Higher Education, she replies. Housing, Sláintecare, environment and childcare are its other core issues.
On housing, it promises to deliver 50,000 affordable purchase homes and 25,000 cost rental homes over five years. The eyebrow-arching claim is that they will be sold for less than €300,000 in Dublin and €260,000 elsewhere. How will that be achieved? She admits that price inflation in construction has left the base price at €360,000. The party’s solution, initially, would be to give “an allocation of additional funding from the Apple tax money” to bring it down to €300,000. Once the programme ramped up to scale, prices would come down.
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The party is accused by Government leaders of playing to the gallery. But, in fairness to it, it is one of the few parties which does not call for lower taxes across the board. On immigration too, it has not hardened its rhetoric.
“We have to ensure that people are treated with dignity here when they arrive,” she says. “We are a relatively rich country. We’re only coming up to the EU average levels in terms of people coming in.”
There will be no alliances pre-polling day, says Cairns. Afterwards, she says she will talk to all parties, firstly with those “which are more aligned to us”.
But will she lead the party into Government? “Oh God, I did not go into politics to go into opposition. We absolutely want to go into government. We are not doing this for the craic.
“We need a strong mandate to have an impact. We are not going in to be a mudguard. We want to have the biggest impact that we can.”
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