Politics

Brendan Howlin: leadership is settled until after next election

Leader says ‘it was a very uniting experience. I personally ended up hugging most people’

Labour Party TDs, senators and councillors who debated the leadership on Sunday evening at their think-in. Photograph: Paul Connor

Fiach Kelly
Mon Sep 17 2018 - 12:37

Labour party leader Brendan Howlin says the leadership issue has been settled until after the next election, following a tense four-hour debate on the issue at a pre Dáil think in.

Mr Howlin said the question of who leads Labour has been “absolutely” resolved until after the general election.

Party TDs, senators and councillors debated the leadership, as well as other challenges facing Labour, on Sunday evening.

It followed calls from a number of councillors over the summer for Mr Howlin to resign.

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The meeting was largely supportive of Mr Howlin, who told his colleagues he is not a “conditional” or “provisional” leader.

Tipperary TD Alan Kelly, who last month effectively called on Mr Howlin to stand aside, also said at the meetng that issue had been ended.

However, he also told his parliamentary party colleagues their performance is not good enough.

Speaking at a press conference on the second day of the think in in Drogheda, Co Louth, Mr Howlin said the meeting was a “uniting experience”.

“People who had expressed views over the summer now had the chance to actually share those views and people who had been silent over the summer, who wanted their voices heard too, and that was the essence of the Labour Party,” he said.

“We are democratic party. Maybe we got a bit used to political parties bussing in people to be clapometers for the leadership, where people stand up and say: ‘I am the candidate but don’t ask me any questions’. That is not the Labour way.”

“At the end of it, it was a very uniting experience. I personally ended up hugging most people.”

The priority now, he added, is to focus on issues of concern to voters.

"The policy platforms of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which are dependent on market interventions, to deal with issues like housing, even issues like health. They are not the solutions that Ireland needs and they are certainly not the solutions that will shape a new equality in Ireland."

Mr Howlin has proposed a new ““economic equality agency” and said economic equality is the next “great goal”.

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