Cork Labour TD: Next elections 'important' for future of party

“WE are not going to be killed off,” said Labour Party TD for Cork East Seán Sherlock at their party conference which was held in the Clayton Hotel Silver Springs on Saturday.

He did, however, acknowledge the next local elections which are scheduled to be held next year are important for the future of the party. 

“The next elections are important. We must grow our numbers on local authorities. Cork was always a bastion of the Labour Party. We are very lucky that in Cathal Rasmussen, James Kennedy, and John Maher we have three excellent councillors. 

"We also have excellent local area reps such as Peter Horgan and Laura Harmon. I think the time is right now for us. We will see growth on both Cork City Council and Cork County Council,” he said.

The Labour Party, despite the appointment of Ivana Bacik as their new party leader last year, consistently remains around 4% in opinion polls. Deputy Sherlock said party members would be lying if they said they weren’t mindful of polls. 

“We all look at polls. We would be telling a lie if we told you we weren’t mindful of polls. 

"There is a national poll and then there are individuals who poll well more than what a national poll is. I polled 13% at the last general election. Can we win seats on 4% now? I would say the answer to that is all it takes is a Peter Horgan or another candidate to get 8 or 9% and they are in seat territory in a multi seat constituency. 

"It comes down to individuals and it comes down to people building profiles in their own electoral areas.

“It is about people,” said the long serving Cork TD. 

“For us to survive as a party that is what we are going back to. Getting to know the people again and reconnecting with the people. All people want is good representation. Historically did Labour councillors give good representation on both Cork City and Cork County Council? I think the answer to that is yes. We are asking people to give people like Peter Horgan a chance.

“We have a model now where we have local area reps. The model is hard graft, keeping the head down and being active on issues. 

"If the desire is there by people to work for the people, they represent in Cork city or county they will get there. People are fair and they recognise the people who will work for them,” he added.

Labour has tabled a no-confidence motion in the Government to be debated next week. Deputy Sherlock said the motion is needed to push back. 

“The reason we are putting down the no-confidence motion is we feel strongly that there was no need for the government to end the no-fault eviction ban at this time. It showed a real lack of judgement. People have nowhere to go. 

"We must use every tool that is available to us in opposition to call the government to account. We do need to push back.” 

Despite repeated assertions that the party has never fully recovered from participating in the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government from 2011 to 2016, Mr Sherlock said the party has big energy and will keep going. 

“We have seven Labour TDs who have huge experience and strong mandates. We are the only party who has served in government that is now in opposition. We have a big target on our back. Every time we raise an issue, our enemies on the left want to hammer us down and the government want to kill us off. 

"We have big energy, and we are going to keep going. We will be forthright in wanting to address the issues with a bit of passion and give people the representation they want.”