Two candidates for Deputy Leader Race

Labour Party members will this month decide on a new Deputy Leader of the party following the resignation of Liz McManus TD from the post. In what is only the second ever such vote, Labour activists will use the one-member, one-vote system to decide on one of two candidates; Limerick East TD Jan O’Sullivan, or Joan Burton TD, who represents Dublin West in the Dáil.
The Deputy Leader’s role is described in limited terms by the Party Constitution as “assisting the Party Leader.” At a Labour Youth hustings on September 1st both candidates were keen to express their understanding of these limitations while promoting closer co-operation with members and a rejuvenated approach to campaigning on the ground.

Joan Burton is a 58 year-old former lecturer who cut her political teeth in the antiapartheid movement in the late seventies and early eighties. First elected to Dublin County Council in 1991, she was returned to the Dáil the following year in the ‘Spring Tide.’ A Junior Minister for Social Welfare in the Labour-Fianna Fáil coalition of 1993-94, she moved to the Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform in the Rainbow
Coalition of 94-97, overseeing Overseas Development in particular. She lost her seat in 1997 but regained it in a tight battle in 2002 and, despite considerable competition in a vastly overpopulated constituency, increased her vote to take the seat this year. She was Labour’s Finance Spokesperson in the last Dáil.

Jan O’Sullivan, only a year younger than Burton, began her political journey in the party of her mentor Jim Kemmy, the Democratic Socialist Party. The DSP merged with Labour in 1991, with O’Sullivan, previously a Limerick City Councillor, elected to the Seanad in 1993 and to the Dáil in 1998 in a by-election following Kemmy’s death. She retained the seat in 2002 and 2007 and, like Burton, enjoyed a high profile in the Dáil as Labour’s Education spokesperson.
The ballot will take place by postal vote for members who have paid full affiliation fees for the past two years. Those yet to receive a ballot or with other queries can contact their branch secretaries or Labour’s Head Office directly. Voting closes on October 5th.

Author: Dermot Looney