Cork TD Holly Cairns tipped to become next leader of Social Democrats
Catherine Chaney/ Murphy Shortall With And Holly Picture: Róisín Cairns Gareth Collins Photos
Holly Cairns has been tipped to become the next leader of the Social Democrats with party sources hopeful the transition will happen “within two weeks”.
Róisín Shortall and Catherine Murphy announced on Wednesday that they will step down as co-leaders of the party.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, both women said they are not leaving politics and plan to context the next general election.
The four other sitting Social Democrat TDs attended the press conference in Dublin's Buswells Hotel, however they all refused to confirm if they intend to run in the leadership contest.
"Today is about Catherine and Róisín," Ms Cairns said.
A party source said the party’s executive is due to meet on Thursday to design a process to facilitate the election of a new leader.
The understands that this has been a strategy by the party that has been in the works for a number of months, and it is expected Ms Cairns, the Cork South-West TD will become the next leader.
Party sources have said Ms Cairns has been approached internally about becoming the next leader and both Ms Shortall and Ms Murphy are happy with the move.
“Both Róisín and Catherine have taken the party so far and now is the time to put in place a new leader.
“Holly is a young, progressive woman with new ideas and has since her election made a difference,” the source said.
Ms Cairns has been a TD for Cork South-West since the 2020 general election.
She was a member of Cork County Council for the Bantry local electoral area from 2019 to 2020.
Both Ms Shortall and Ms Murphy have been joint leaders of the Social Democrats since July 2015.
Announcing the departure Ms Shortall said it was a "very big decision" both personally and politically, but she added that it is "vital" that a long-term view in relation to the party is taken.
"As the Social Democrats continue to develop and grow, Catherine and I have decided that the time is right now to hand over the leadership reins of the party to the next generation of Social Democrats," Ms Shortall said.
The Dublin North-West TD said that with the local elections 15 months away, now provides "optimum time" for the new leader to build momentum ahead of the polls and would also allow them to fully bed in ahead of any general election.
"We believe it's a good time. We have talked about this for quite some time for many months, and I suppose it's just in recent weeks that we've decided on the actual date," she said.
Both Ms Shortall and Ms Murphy have confirmed that they will remain in politics and will stand in the next general election.
Ms Murphy said when the party was set up eight years ago it was their belief there were huge numbers of people who were incredibly disillusioned with politics.
"We felt there was a real space for a social democratic party," she said.
Asked whether they would favour another joint-leadership arrangement, Ms Shortall said it would be up to the parliamentary party decide what is the best approach.
However, she added that both women had found the joint leadership to be "very, very good" especially given the time-consuming nature of setting up a new political party, with branches across the country.
"It worked very well certainly for the startup phase. So, we'll see what is decided over the coming days in relation to that," she said.
Ms Murphy was first elected to Dáil in 2005, following a by-election in Kildare North.
She is both co-leader and co-founder of the Social Democrats and is the party’s spokesperson on Justice, Enterprise, Trade and Employment as well as Transport.
Ms Shortall was first elected to the Dáil in 1992, in the Dublin North West constituency.
In August 2022, she became the longest serving female TD in the history of the State, overtaking Mary Harney.
She is co-leader and co-founder of the Social Democrats, and is party spokesperson on Health, Finance, and Public Expenditure and Reform.