The Labour Party leader has called on the Irish and British governments to commit to a timeline for referendums on a united Ireland.
In a change of party policy, Ivana Bacik committed Labour to the goal of building what she called a “new 32-county republic”.
In her leader’s address to the party’s annual conference, Ms Bacik framed the party as republicans in the mould of the executed 1916 rising leader and trade unionist James Connolly.
“As leader of a republican party, I am calling now on the Irish and British governments to set a clear timeline for the holding of a unity referendum,” Ms Bacik said on Saturday evening.
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“Friends, we don’t want a fourth green field for its own sake.
“We know better than to run a referendum in haste – without sufficient preparation or groundwork.
“But we do need a clear time frame to allow for preparation of a green and white paper, for citizens’ assemblies.”
She told delegates in the Radisson Blu hotel in Limerick that a debate was needed to start the process of preparation towards a united Ireland, including the establishment of a government department to carry out planning.
“Our goal is to build a new 32-county republic. In our new republic, just as now, the Labour Party will stand firm to ensure security for all our communities. Including our new Irish, who have chosen to make Ireland their home.”
Ms Bacik said Labour had gained momentum, was growing and would stand by its values of equality, solidarity and fairness.
She said the election of Catherine Connolly as President had brought together the parties of the left.
“It united many of us who, for far too long, had focused on our differences, not our common cause,” she said.
“With Catherine’s campaign we have shown that an alternative politics – an alternative Ireland – is possible, when we unite together.”
Describing the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Independent Coalition as the “Government of failure”, Ms Bacik pointed out several cost-of-living increases.
“Grocery bills, energy bills, insurance, rent, mortgage costs are all rising at a rate that vastly outpaces [growth in] take-home pay,” she said.
Ms Bacik said Budget 2026 had “rewarded burger barons and big builders”. She accused the Government of reckless tax cuts and large giveaways to corporate chains, contending there was nothing in the budget for working families.
The leader’s speech echoed the three big themes discussed during the daylong conference – housing, public services and climate change.
On housing, she described the Government’s new housing policy as “just old milk in new bottles”. She accused the Coalition of having “normalised” the eviction of children.
“Five thousand homeless children is a national disgrace,” she said.
Ms Bacik argued for one of her party’s main general election planks, the creation of a State construction company into which the Land Development Agency could be subsumed.
She called for the decriminalisation of drug users, the full roll-out of the Sláintecare healthcare reform plan, as well as improved healthcare for trans people.
She also emphasised Labour’s goal of the full separation of church and State in education.
Ms Bacik told delegates the party stood behind the people of Gaza and Ukraine and strongly condemned the attacks on international protection accommodation centres. She said her party welcomed the new Irish.
“The Irish flag belongs to everyone,” she said, to sustained applause.
She also challenged the Government to pass the Occupied Territories Bill by Christmas.
In her closing remarks, Ms Bacik said Labour was “closely aligned in our values with the Green Party and Social Democrats”.
She said Ms Connolly’s election as President had offered hope for an alternative future, but that it would be a challenge to align the policies of her party and those of other parties.
However, she said Labour would be willing to step up that challenge.
