Clare Daly has been an MEP for the Dublin constituency since 2019. She previously served as a TD for Dublin North from 2011 to 2019, initially as a member of the Socialist Party. Before entering the Dáil, she was a councillor on Fingal County Council for 12 years.

Europe is in the middle of a savage cost of living crisis. People are being hammered, with higher bills, higher rents, higher mortgage repayments, higher food costs, while their wages stay the same. Nearly 14,000 people are homeless in Ireland, and that’s just the official figures - no doubt there are many more not reflected in the official statistics. Across Europe, 95 million people are in poverty, while the top 0.5% own a staggering 20% of the wealth. Between this, the housing crisis and precarious employment, people's lives are getting worse not better, and they are losing hope of a decent job and a secure place to live.

These problems are a consequence of years of austerity forced on people in order to pay bankers’ gambling debts; years of wealth being transferred upwards; years of neoliberalism. Instead of changing course to address the massive problems people are facing, the EU is doubling down and reinforcing austerity. It’s dedicating itself to militarism, funnelling more and more money to arms, diverting money away from the things that make us safe and secure - spending on public services, housing, climate, social care.

All of this has to be addressed, and urgently. The people of Ireland, and the people of Europe aren’t just facing one issue, they’re facing multiples of them. All of them are linked, and to address them we need real, radical action. In Ireland, and internationally. The status quo is not sustainable for anyone.

We don’t know what groups will exist in the next Parliament - it’s very possible there will be changes and realignments, politics is very much in flux at the moment. We’ll have to see what happens, but we’ll of course be looking to work with genuine left voices if we’re re-elected.

(For the last five years, Clare Daly has been a member of The Left group)

For the last five years I have been the most fearless, clearest voice in Europe challenging an oblivious EU elite that consistently works to the detriment of ordinary people. I've done exactly what I said I'd do, and stood up for peace and justice, for workers, for the right to disagree, to be different, to be neutral and proud of it.

If re-elected I will keep doing that, standing against the tide and standing up for ordinary people. Too many times in politics we’ve seen people who say they’re an alternative fall into line and betray those who voted for them as soon as they get elected. Over 25 years as an elected politician, I have never done that, and I never will.