PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT TD Bríd Smith has announced that she will not be seeking re-election.
The Dublin South Central has decided not to run in the next general election as it is time to make way for the new generation of “younger working class people” who can “tell it like it is”, she said.
Smith said Councillor Hazel de Nortúin will be running in the next election in her place.
“I’m not hanging up my boots by any means,” she said speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, and adding that she will be promoting de Nortúin to ensure she wins a seat.
Smith said the Sinn Féín surge in popularity has made the left vulnerable, “but it doesn’t mean that we’re obsolete”, she said.
“I do think there’s a space in South Central in particular, which is a very left wing constituency, for a socialist TD.
Bríd was elected to the Dáil in 2016, having previously served as a councillor on Dublin City Council for the Ballyfermot/Drimnagh area.
Smith also stood in the European elections to become a Dublin MEP in 2014.
Previously in the role as a trade unionist, Smith was the first female shop steward in Dublin Bus and Dublin Branch secretary of the National Bus and Rail Workers Union.
In the 1980s, she also helped organise solidarity pickets and collections for the Dunnes Stores strikers against Apartheid.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon Smith said she has “a lot of collateral damage” left in her before this Oireachtas finishes.
Looking back on her 14 years as a TD and councillor she noted that her time serving on the climate committee was both challenging and interesting but her highlight to date has been working on the repeal campaign.
“All my adult life I’ve been fighting against the rigid abortion regime in this country,” Smith said.
“I still have the ‘Our Bodies, Our Choice’ posters outside me window, pinned to the back of the garden wall so when I’m making a cup of tea I can see it.
“I’m very proud of what was achieved in repeal but I’m also very proud of what was achieved through the water charges. The thing that flows through them all is the idea that these things were achieved through people power movements, not just through politicians like us getting up and saying the right thing.”
When asked if she had any low points during her time as a public representative, Smith said: “I don’t think about them really, you move on. You win some, you lose some.”
She did say however that she is currently disappointed with how Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Government has responded to the recent abortion legislation review.
“They’re basically saying ‘we’re going to do nothing’,” Smith said.
She noted that the review has made a number of recommendations and said things need to be “seriously looked at to make life for women in this country better”.
Before the next election, Smith said she will keep pushing for these recommendations to be accepted and will also be focusing on achieving a ban of data centres and LNG infrastructure.
In addition to this, Smith said another key priority will be pushing for legislation to give retired workers the right to representation in the Workplace Relations Commission.
She added: “I really do want to say to the retired workers – they are amazing people I’ve been working with hundreds of them for the last two years – they’re not to get a fright, I’m not bailing out on them, we’re going to keep fighting this.”
With reporting by Jane Matthews
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