Holly Cairns 'gutted' about likelihood of missing the end of election campaign

Holly Cairns TD: 'We want to go into Government, but we don't want to go in for the sake of it.' Picture: Anne Minihane

As a freshly elected TD, Holly Cairns was shocked by the scale and sophistication of lobbying that goes on in politics.

The Social Democrats leader, who is fighting to retain her seat in the highly competitive Cork South West constituency as she also prepares to welcome her first child, believes that public funding has for a long time been allocated on the basis of who shouts the loudest. This, she says, needs to change.