Political Platform: Marie Sherlock TD
Marie Sherlock is a Labour Party TD first elected in the Dublin Central constituency in 2024. She was elected to Dublin City Council in 2019 before entering the Seanad in 2020 where she served on the Labour Panel until 2024. Prior to becoming a Senator, she was head of policy and equality for SIPTU.
What inspired you to get into politics?
Battling against inequality and for greater fairness has been a huge part of my teenage and adult life.
After years of working as SIPTU’s economic adviser and talking about the biggest issues confronting our country such as the lack of housing, the inequality in our health system, the huge impact for women from a lack of affordable childcare, and the low-paid trap for many workers, I felt I needed to stop talking and start acting. For me, politics has always been about deeds not just words.
The wonderful community of Phibsborough in Dublin Central has been my home for 20 years and has major comfort and deprivation living cheek by jowl, so I put myself forward for the local elections in 2019.
I am a great believer that success in politics is a mix of a lot of hard work and a bit of luck, and circumstances played out that I was elected on my first try to Dublin City Council, then to the Seanad in 2020 (by the skin of my teeth!) and to Dáil Éireann in 2024.
What has been your proudest achievement in politics?
Three break-throughs stand out for me.
Firstly, saving vital therapies for four special schools who were about to lose out under the new disability strategy, PDS. There is so much that needs to happen in disability services and this was a classic, hugely frustrating, case of a new strategy trying to end something that was actually working. We had a brilliant campaign with the School for the Deaf in Cabra and three other schools and I will be always grateful to then-Minister of State for Disabilities Anne Rabbitte for finally listening to me and forcing the change on the HSE.
Secondly, changing the National Childcare Scheme to ensure that some of the most disadvantaged children could access the scheme. We organised a great campaign with local early years services.
Finally, Repeal the 8th campaign in 2018. Here in Dublin Central we had a brilliant cross party campaign. I was one of eight leaders of the campaign locally, and the way we worked together was something that I will forever cherish. I passionately believe that when people have a common purpose, very special things can happen.
“The values of justice and fairness were a huge part of my upbringing and are core to the Labour party.”
Marie Sherlock TD
Who do you admire in politics or public life?
Mary Robinson’s election in 1990 was an enormous inspiration. It was the first time in my classroom, fourth class, where I was on the winning side, most of my community then would have been supporters of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. As a young girl, to see a woman come through against the odds, was enormously exciting.
Crucially though, it is those ordinary people, growing up with very little who go on to do great things, are the people who have inspired me the most. My uncle Joe was a huge inspiration. He was a TD in Cork East and literally worked day and night for his constituents. Former Labour TD Kathleen Lynch was another childhood inspiration; coming from such serious illness and adversity to go onto win a Dáil seat.
What drew you to the Labour Party?
The values of justice and fairness were a huge part of my upbringing and are core to the Labour Party so when I came to Dublin in 2000, I formally joined the party. My uncle had been a TD for Sinn Féin – The Workers’ Party, progressing onto Democratic Left, and then the Labour Party.
What are your key priorities for Dublin Central?
Changing course on housing in our city and ending the soul destroying. The LDA has identified over 33 acres of land as suitable for housing but so far, there is little or no government push on this. Introduce compulsory sale orders to overhaul how the city deals with the social scourge of dereliction and push DCC to develop what it owns and a special school for Dublin 1.
More GPs! The national average is one GP to just over 1,500 people. In Cabra, it is one over 3,000 people. In the North inner city it is one over 3,500.
More affordable childcare facilities so more women can return to work, keep full-time hours or return after a long period back into the workplace.
More arts spaces.
What are your interests outside of work?
My three young kids! One of the challenges in politics is that it is all encompassing and given the level of need in Dublin Central, it can be hard to find time off.
I am involved in coaching camogie/hurling and football with two of my three kids and the wonderful thing is that you cannot be thinking about work when you are on the sideline calling to a child to mark up or leading a drill on running mechanics. To be clear though, I am very much a foot soldier at my club Na Fianna and I am surrounded by brilliant people who do all the organising.
I also love to run and it is there I get most of my thinking done. I also love reading non-fiction and there is always a book on the go. That is my break away from the day-to-day and source of inspiration about how I think about the world.
