Cian O'Callaghan

Cian O'Callaghan (born 7 May 1979) is an Irish politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay North constituency since the 2020 general election. He is the Finance, Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation spokesperson for the Social Democrats and became deputy leader of the party in 2023. During his time at UCD, O'Callaghan was active in student politics, becoming an officer in the Student's Union.

O'Callaghan served as chair of the youth wing of Democratic Left, and served as co-chair of Labour Youth following the merger of Democratic Left with Labour.

Political career

Fingal County Council

O'Callaghan was elected to Fingal County Council on his first attempt in 2009, representing Labour, taking the second seat in the Howth-Malahide local electoral area. Following the results of the 2011 Irish general election, O'Callaghan fiercely opposed Labour entering into a coalition government with Fine Gael.

In June 2012, he was elected as Mayor of Fingal, becoming the first openly gay mayor in the country's history. During his time as mayor he highlighted the problems faced by homeowners in a number of newer developments in the Fingal area, where building materials contaminated with pyrite caused severe damage. It was also during this period that O'Callaghan clashed with Labour leader Eamon Gilmore over a number of issues; O'Callaghan criticised Gilmore for placing Labour in a coalition with Fine Gael, for his stance on Irish neutrality and for his stance on the use of Shannon Airport by US military flights.

Running as an Independent candidate at the 2014 local elections, O'Callaghan topped the poll in the Howth-Malahide local electoral area.

O'Callaghan was subsequently reelected to Fingal County Council at the 2019 local elections with 13.8% of the vote.

Social Democrats O'Callaghan was a founding member of the Social Democrats when they launched the party in July 2015. O'Callaghan stated his reason for joining the party was "because the party has a serious plan for the long term that will give people security in the areas of health, housing and employment. In doing so, O'Callaghan took up the seat of his former mentor Tommy Broughan, who had decided not to contest that year's election.

Following the election, O'Callaghan was named as the Social Democrats' spokesperson on Housing, International Affairs and Defence.

As of 2020, O'Callaghan opposes any potential merger of the Social Democrats with the Labour Party. However, O'Callaghan believes that the left-wing parties in Irish politics should work broadly together.

In March 2022 O'Callaghan introduced a bill that would make it explicitly illegal for landlords to demand sex as a form of rent or to make any sort of advertising suggesting that sex would be accepted as a form of rent. The government said they would not oppose the measure.

O'Callaghan has been calling on the Government to increase the number of affordable purchase homes and tabled an amendment in the Dáil (which was ultimately voted down by Government) for the introduction of affordable housing zoning. In June 2023, O'Callaghan criticised the Government's 1-billion-euro underspend from the 2022 housing budget and accusing the Taoiseach of 'dressing up failure as success' in relation to their housing delivery. O'Callaghan described the lack of capital funding as 'hard to grasp' where there are record levels of homelessness, house prices and rents.

O'Callaghan has called the levels of child homelessness a 'national disaster'.

On 1 July 2023, it was announced that O'Callaghan had been appointed to the newly created role of deputy leader of the Social Democrats.

At the 2024 general election, O'Callaghan was re-elected to the Dáil. He is now the party's spokesperson on Finance; Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation.

Elections to the DáilPartyElection Result Dublin Bay North 2016 3,864 5.2 Eliminated on count 12/15 Dublin Bay North 2020 6,229 8.7 Elected on count 14/14 Dublin Bay North 2024 9,738 14.9 Elected on count 8/14 Elections to Fingal County CouncilPartyElection Result Howth–Malahide LEA 2009 2,256 10.1 Elected on count 10/10 Howth–Malahide LEA 2014 2,868 16.2 Elected on count 1/9 Howth–Malahide LEA 2019 2,717 13.8 Elected on count 1/3