Ivana Bacik has been confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party, following the resignation of Alan Kelly earlier this month.
Bacik has strong connections to Trinity – she has served as Reid Professor of Criminal Law in the School of Law and was a Senator for the University of Dublin panel since 2007, until her election to the Dáil last July. She was also Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) president in 1989 and was threatened with imprisonment by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children for publishing information on abortion in TCDSU’s freshers’ handbook.
The Journal reported that Bacik told a Labour party conference in Ringsend: “I am honoured, excited and, I confess, quite overwhelmed.”
“I know the ambition you have for our future and for how our party can shape our future for the better”, she said,
“I didn’t become a political activist because I had all the answers – and I still don’t. For me, politics is about building a better future.”
“It’s not contrived shouting matches or tearing people apart to score a political point”, she said.
She also stated that Labour supports pay increases to address the rising cost of living in Ireland.
“Ireland needs a pay rise. We in Labour know that an increase in take-home pay is the best way to help working people and families keep up with rising costs”, she said.
Alan Kelly announced his resignation as Labour leader on March 2nd after losing the confidence of the Labour Party parliamentary members.
Bacik wrote in an op-ed for this newspaper last year that she supports an increase in state funding to create a publicly funded third-level education system. She wrote: “Education must be seen as a right and not a privilege – at all levels and all stages. At this critical juncture in Irish history, and as we face down the challenges of Brexit, the climate crisis, the pandemic and the dominance of neoliberal ideology, we must reflect on what is important, what we really care about, and how we want to shape the future.”
“Education has played a crucial role in tackling poverty in many quarters of Irish society in the past 100 years. Upon the centenary of the establishment, let us look to the next 100 years”, she wrote.
Last July, Bacik was elected to the Dáil in the Dublin Bay South bye-election. She topped the poll with 30 per cent of first-preference votes. A bye election is currently being held to fill her Senate seat.
There are 17 candidates running in the bye-election and the closing date for the return of ballots is March 30th.
