Housing and childcare top priorities for Cork's Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
“I suppose I always identified with the party. I felt they were speaking on behalf of people who didn’t have a voice in my own community Togher and neighbouring communities. I felt there was a lot of disadvantage even at the height of the Celtic Tiger,” he said.
The first-time candidate who studied law in UCC and plays hurling with St Finbarr’s GAA club took a year out from his studies when he became national organiser for the youth wing of the party, Ógra Sinn Féin in 2009/2010.
“I got to travel the country and meet people in the party, that was a great experience,” he said.
Mr Ó Laoghaire worked as a parliamentary assistant to senators David Cullinane and Trevor Ó Clochartaigh. He went on to work with former Cork East TD, Sandra McLellan when she was elected in 2011.
He made his entry into politics when he won a seat on Cork County Council in 2014. It took two attempts to select a Sinn Féin candidate after both Mr Ó Laoghaire and the current lord mayor, Chris O’Leary received the same amount of votes at the first selection campaign.
However, Mr Ó Laoghaire defeated his party colleague by two votes in a second vote last April claiming the Cork South Central nomination.
As a fluent Irish speaker he will be hoping to raise issues relating to the Gaeltacht and our native language as a TD. As well as providing more housing and tackling the homeless crisis Mr Ó Laoghaire said he will be working hard to improve the quality of social housing.
“I think an issue also not being talked about is the condition of local authority housing, I definitely encountered it an awful lot on the doors, damp cold and a serious need for maintenance work,” he said.
He was elected on the 11th count, joining outgoing TDs Simon Coveney, Micheál Martin and Michael McGrath in representing the Cork South Central constituency.
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