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Ivana Bacik commits to discussing her Trinity career break as she is appointed Labour leader

- Yesterday 14:09

Ivana Bacik has committed to discuss her career break from a lucrative academic post in Trinity College after she was officially appointed as Labour Party leader.

Ms Bacik was the sole candidate to replace ousted party leader Alan Kelly and did not have to go before the Labour electorate.

In her first speech as Labour leader she acknowledged the “immense work, commitment and contribution” made by Mr Kelly to the Labour Party over many years.

However, she then added that politics for her was “not about contrived shouting matches or tearing people apart to score a political point”. “That’s not the politics I believe in. For me politics is constructive – it’s about positive change. And change is always a choice,” she added.

Ms Bacik also discussed the on-going controversy surrounding the senior academic post she has refused to give up after being elected as a TD which comes with a €100,000 salary plus expenses.

Before her election to the Dáil last year she said she would consider giving up the post if elected to the Dáil. However, she has yet to give up the post and allow another academic take up a full-time role. The salary for similar academic post ranges from €83,570 to €116,528 a year.

The Seanad Register of Members’ Interests shows she went on a career break in 2020 and before that she worked as a lecturer on a reduced hours contract.

At the event noting her appointment as Labour leader, Ms Bacik said: “Career breaks are really important for giving people exactly that, a safety net.

“Particularly for women leaving work for taking time off for work and career breaks should also be available for men. They should also be facilitated in the public and private service.”

She said she will discuss her position with Trinity but when asked if the conversation will be about forgoing the position she said: “I’m going to speak to Trinity before I speak to the media.”

Asked if she stood over the policies she supported in the austerity years of 2011 to 2016, she said she stood over her record.

“That was a Government in which Labour ministers had to make choices that no Labour ministers would ever wish to make,” she said. 

"But it was a Government that inherited a country that was bankrupt. It was a Government that pulled us back from the brink financially and that left office in 2016 leaving the country in a better space financially.

"We have now been out of Government longer than we have been in it. I do think it is time for us to move on.”

She said people in their 20s now would not have had the opportunity to vote during that time.

Ms Bacik declined to set targets for seats or polling. She also declined to say whether the Labour Party would enter Government with Sinn Féin, saying it was “far too soon to even think about that.”

On the topic of going into Government generally she said: “I think it’s too soon to say but certainly Labour is a party that has always been serious about seeking to deliver on change.”

She called for a “Donogh O’Malley moment” for early years education and care, referring to the former Fianna Fáil education minister credited with introducing free secondary education for all.

“Just as O’Malley committed the state to provide a secondary school place for everyone, so we need now to guarantee a publicly funded pre-school place for every child,” she said.

She said her family’s experience of moving to Ireland from Czechoslovakia after World War II is why Vladimir Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine has moved her “so deeply”.

But she refused to say if she would take a family seeking refugee into her own home.

She also called for the Russian Ambassador to Ireland to be expelled.