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INCOMING MEMBERS OF Dublin City Council from the Social Democrats, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and a number of independents have formed a new Progressive Alliance.
With ten Social Democrats, nine Sinn Féin councillors, five independents and two members from People Before Profit, the Alliance has 26 members, which is short of the 32 required to form a majority. That means a Fine Gael-led majority will likely control the Council.
The independents are Pat Dunne, John Lyons, Vincent Jackson, Barry Heneghan and Cieran Perry.
Notably absent from the grouping are members from the Green Party and Labour.
Negotiations between the various left-leaning parties on the Council have been taking place since last Thursday, with talks initially involving the two parties.
Labour pulled out last week citing differences on local property tax and also saying the numbers weren’t there for a majority despite the collection of parties totalling 31 councillors without any independents or PBP members involved.
The Greens with their eight seats reportedly withdrew yesterday. The party has been asked for comment by The Journal.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil meanwhile have 11 and eight seats respectively while Labour holds four.
The lack of a majority for the new alliance means that a Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil-led majority is the likely outcome. If they get the Greens and Labour on board, that would amount to 31 seats, one short of a majority.
Sinn Féin’s leader on the Council, Daithí Doolan said he was delighted to announce the formation of the alliance, which has agreed “a progressive programme of work for the five-year term”.
The group will be proposing Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats and Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan for Lord Mayor and Deputy Mayor at tomorrow’s DCC annual general meeting.
“This Progressive Alliance offers a great opportunity for the people of Dublin. It offers a real alternative to the conservative politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael,” Doolan said.
“Unfortunately, the Green Party and Labour Party have not committed to supporting the Alliance. This is very shortsighted. I would strongly encourage them to support our five-year programme rather than propping up Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.”
Social Democrat councillor Cat O’Driscoll described the Alliance’s programme as one focused on “inclusion” and said that combating hate and racism was central to the group’s plans for the capital city, along with addressing housing, fuel poverty, safety and improving public services.
“Our Alliance, with inclusion and anti-racism at its core, is focused on addressing the challenges in housing, safety, climate and city services, leaving no one behind,” she said.
She also said her party was “very disappointed” that the Greens and Labour pulled out of the talks, adding that they has missed “a valuable opportunity to form a left-leaning alliance on Dublin City Council”.
Lord Mayor candidate Daniel Ennis said:
“I want to promote all that’s good about our great city at a time I feel we are facing our biggest challenges. We need to stamp out the hate that is attempting to bulldoze all of the city’s progress. There is no room for hate in our communities, there’s no place for it in Dublin.”
People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy said the alliance “demonstrated that the left can unite to deliver on core principles and to provide a much needed alternative to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil”.
He said it was a positive development ahead of a General Election and also criticised the Greens and Labour.
“By walking away from discussions with the left to speak to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, Labour and the Green Party have shown where they stand, this is clarifying and should not be forgotten.”
Reddy told The Journal the decisions from the two parties represent a “preference for the status quo” and are a sign of how they would act towards a possible left government at national level.
Social Democrat TD for Dublin Central, Gary Gannon, took aim at Labour in particular.
“For all their talk about the need for unity on the left, it now appears that the Labour Party will simply revert to their default position of being mudguards for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil at the first opportunity,” he said.
“In particular, it exposes Labour’s repeated calls for more cooperation between centre-left parties for the hollow rhetoric that it is.”
Incoming Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin recently said that his party and the Social Democrats “need to stop pretending there’s any difference between them”, suggesting they “join forces”.
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Take note any Labour or Green voters who mistakenly believe they’re voting for left wing parties.
@Rochelle Hart: Why do supposedly left-wing parties support reducing the money DCC has to spend, by repeatedly reducing property tax?
That’s a populist policy, not a left policy. Greens + Labour are right to pull out of that BS.
@Michael Barry: Because they believe in housing as an essential right, not as assets to be taxed.
The property tax doesn’t serve as a wealth tax since it applies to even those in the most modest homes and since it’s beyond a council’s remit to remove the property tax, the best they can do is reduce the impact.
@Michael Barry: because many people on low incomes just happen to be in houses that have become valuable.
Do you propose taxing people out of their homes or having them live in unheated homes and all for big government to squander it on wasters and illegal immigrants
@Michael Barry: That is a bit of a red herring that labour included in their press statement. But there was no requirement in the progressive alliance to vote one way or another on the property tax. Socdems have consistently voted to have the maximum property tax within the +15 percent limit allowed. FG and FF have consistently voted to reduce it in the past. It’s unlikely that Labour can make them vote to increase it. That represents a very small part of the overall council budget (2% from the article I saw on Dublin Inquirer which has lots of detail). So the feeling was that pushing for a left alliance was the most important thing.
@David O’Reilly: and I think that the property tax should have some kind of means test. As people said above there are so many people with a fixed income who really struggle with that bill and they may just have a ginormously expensive house because of Ireland’s cyclical crackers property market. I hear it constantly when I’m talking to people in North Dublin anyway. Lots of people who can pay it without batting an eyelid though. It should be clear what they are getting for that though – like in the UK council tax is pretty big but you get your bins and lots of council services that are apparent like street cleaning etc.
That sounds like a solid coalition. I give it 3 months.
@honey badger: I’m sure they care that you give it anytime at all. At least they are trying to change things all you seem to do with your time is post dribble on here
@Ger Whelan: In fairness the lot of them would fall out with their own shadows…..3 months is very ootimistic!!
Great idea in principle. The only way to have real change is that all left leaning parties to come together to vote out fgff,
Labour and greens could be wiped out next election.
So they need to decide what side of history they want to be on.
Labour sold out and electorate don’t forget that. If they have any chance, they need to go back to their roots of supporting the ordinary workers.
Disgraceful Labour, they are at it all over again.
Propping up FF FG.
Refusing to enter left alliance in Dublin city Council.
You won’t see my vote ever again
@Niall Murphy: You don’t understand local politics if you think this is about “propping up FFG”
@Michael Barry: or that SF are left. All they are doing is bandwagoning. They’ll soon exhaust all possibilities.
@Alan: ” bandwagoning” excellent, even my predictive text couldn’t offer an alternative to that……I’ll use in discussion
They’ll be riding unicorns are the chamber in no time. Rainbows everywhere.
Well done Labour. Never get into bed with terrorists.
@Dave c: They already did that when they jumped into bed with FF. Its founding members were originally part of SF and the IRA and split to form their own political party and terrorist movement which caused the Civil war.
@Ger Whelan: That was different Sinn Fein party – learn your history
@Sean Hayes: Better tell them to Update their official website so. Because there it shows its history back to its founding in the early 1900′s.
@Ger Whelan: Everything was found in this country in the 1900s .
If the parties put themselves forward under a Progressive Alliance in the coming general election they could have a breakthrough chance.
@9QRixo8H: such a diverse groups of malcontents would never be able to agree a joint program nationally. Even Sinn Fein would be reluctant to try to form a government that included PBP. When the election comes, the left parties will split the vote as per usual. The old story, governments don’t win elections, the opposition lose them.
@9QRixo8H: Are you serious? They collectively would garner 8% of the vote, if even that in a GE.
This is another ” refurbishment ” of their failed policies, and claptrap .
I honestly thought you had an idea of this works based on your posts, its OK to promote something but to tie to this is farcical.
Exactly
Alliance? More like Axis.
It won’t last there b a falling out somewhere
Lunatics/asylum
Dublin City Council should be disbanded and the management of Fingal brought in to run things.
@Notty Tee: frying pan/fire. Fingal.is about as bad as it gets.
@Notty Tee: that’s hilarious
Labour costing up to FF on the councils
Amazing! Now do something about all the scroats ruining our city!!
Great, a Far Lazy alliance of doleheads to spend my tax money on the bone idle.
In France they’d be called le Front Populaire. When will they split?
The Left axis here is primarily driven by resentment. No one believes higher taxes results in better services. It just sucks money from the real economy. Small local businesses then need grants to survive. Higher taxation validated. The virtuous Left.
Does it really matter? Councillors have no power, all important decisions are made by the city manager. We don’t even get to vote for Lord Mayor the parties take turn enjoying that gig even if the chosen one is unfit for any office.
Any member of Labour is very welcome to join the Social Democrats.
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