Ivana Bacik stressed that building homes would be the Labour Party's number one priority in government. Photograph: Dara Mac DónaillShe said her party would protect renters by reinstating a ban on no fault evictions, provide dedicated housing for older people and people with disabilities and introduce a new fair deal scheme to support older people to remain living at home. “And we commit to recognise the true value of care work through decent pay and conditions for carers.
Labour would legislate for assisted dying, would implement its policy of community model of policing with more gardaí on the streets. Labour would “end Direct Provision and deliver a fair and effective policy on migration” in contrast to the Government whose treatment of refugees left them “out in the cold, while vacant buildings lie empty”.
In a speech laced with references to the need for more State involvement, she claimed “the Government has made a pyramid scheme of our basic needs. They are giving people a trickle of their taxes back to pay for non-existent services they should have provided in the first place.” Ms Bacik said too many young people were still living with their parents, “stuck in a rental trap, paying off someone else’s mortgage” or delaying having children. This was the reality of modern Ireland with “no security, no certainty – a new precariat.”
The Dublin Bay South TD 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”.