Labour publishes plan to Build Better Together

Ivana Bacik

17 November 2024

The Labour Party published its manifesto for change today in Dublin.

Speaking at the event, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said voters have a choice on November 29th on how we use the power and resources of the State to shape a better future and address the problems Ireland faces.

She said:

“While other parties seem intent on turning this election into a politics panto, we want to focus on what the State can achieve for people. The people of Ireland deserve a better deal than what’s been on offer over the past five years.

“We are clear, a vote for Labour is a vote for an active State that intervenes to protect you when you’re sick, that builds the homes we need, that educates our children, and supports those at work.

“Labour’s election campaign is focused on our six core missions to deliver in those areas where we believe leadership is needed. These six missions are ambitious, costed and achievable over the lifetime of a Government. They must form the focus of the next Government’s activities on day one.

1. On housing – with a new State Construction Company contributing significantly to our goal of building 50,000 new homes a year, and a host of new protections for renters.

2. On climate – taking action to accelerate decarbonisation and provide people with sustainable ways to simultaneously reduce emissions and their household bills.

3. On our health services – providing free GP care to every child, so no parent has to think twice about taking their child to the GP due to cost.

4. On children’s rights – giving children the best start in life and supporting all children, particularly those living in poverty or experiencing disadvantage.

5. On work – raising wages and protecting workers’ rights to organise and join a trade union.

6. On rising costs – using the machinery of the State to drive down energy, childcare and insurance costs, and removing the instalment payments penalty which targets the poor..

“Taken together, these six missions can transform lives.

“They are the antidote to the sickness resulting from market failure. To be clear, where the market fails, it fails people. No failure comes without a consequence.

“My focus – and that of the Labour Party – is on transforming public services into a safety net: for the people who were served with an eviction notice this week; the families scrambling for childcare so they can stay in work; the young people booking one way flights because they don’t see a future here; and all those who are being pushed to the margins.

“On the doorstep, those people tell me they don’t care for reality-TV election coverage. They want to know how we can address the challenges of our times – like building homes, bringing down the cost of living, and ensuring our schools and hospitals are staffed.

“That is what we are putting forward in this election. A constructive, clear plan to build better, together. That is the choice at this election.”

ENDS

Labour has six key missions for change to transform Ireland – these are:

1. Build more Homes: build 50,000 new homes a year, with a State Construction Company, stronger renters rights, and action on vacancy and dereliction.

2. A New Deal for Working People: tackle low pay with a real living wage and give employees more control at work with the freedom to organise and collectively bargain for better pay and conditions.

3. Climate Action and a Just Transition: a €2.5bn national retrofitting fund to finance street by street energy efficiency upgrades, invest directly in offshore wind projects and a €9/month Climate transport ticket.

4. Transform our Health Service: free GP care for all children, guaranteed jobs for health graduates, safe staffing and 5,000 new beds over the term of the next government.

5. Cost of Living Action Plan: more affordable housing and rents, drive down electricity costs to the EU average, tackle price gouging, index social welfare payments and income tax credits and bands to the cost of living.

6. A Charter for Children’s Rights: a public childcare system, an Autism Guarantee of a school place for all children with additional needs, an end to waiting lists for disability and mental health services and introduce a DEIS+ scheme.

Big Ideas Labour is proposing:

• A new Strategic Investment and Development Bank to finance housing, energy projects and support SMEs to scale up to be global leaders.

• Increase the pay of apprentices, provide reproductive leave, increase trials of the four day week and close the gender pay and pension gap.

• Pass a Poverty Act and introduce a targeted second Child Benefit Payment and a Cost of Disability payment.

• A Freedom to Learn scheme with free courses and skills vouchers for workers who want to upskill after 10 years of social insurance contributions, funded through the National Training Fund.

• Provide key worker housing in our main cities for essential public servants, starting with refurbishing HSE vacant properties as homes for the health service workers.

• A full year of paid parental leave and phase in pay related Maternity Benefit (as was done for Jobseekers).

• Remove the means test on Carer’s Allowance and increase the half rate Carer’s Allowance over time to a full rate over the period of Govt to recognise the unpaid work of family carers.

• A National Convention on Education to finally separate church and state with increased divestment to multidenominational schools.

• Create two new Departments:

  • A Dept of Digital and Communications (twinned with Dept of Further & Higher Education) under one Minister, responsible for driving the digital transition and AI.

  • A Dept of Unification under the Taoiseach, responsible for reconciliation, harmonisation, integration, and unity planning.

• Increase the Garda training allowance to a starting salary to increase recruitment to reach a force of over 18,000 and set up an independent review of pay and conditions in the Defence Forces and implement the working time directive.

• Invest in the Arts and Artist spaces and develop plans for new national cultural institutions.

• Set up a Teacher Staffing Taskforce to address the crisis in teacher recruitment and provide incremental credit for teachers working abroad.

• Introduce a real right to flexible work, two furtherpublic holidays, and increase the statutory redundancy cap from €600/wk to €1,000.

• Reform the system of accountability for Ministers and Secretary Generals and the office of Attorney General, introduce a duty of candor, and overhaul standards in public office.

• Establish a new Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) modelled on the Portuguese example.