Lorna has been a councillor for Cork City South-East on Cork City Council since 2019. She has worked for multinational companies and was a press officer for Cork Together for Yes.

Decades of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have resulted in Cork having the fastest rising rents in the country, alongside unprecedented homelessness and shoddy public transport. My core political conviction is that workers and carers need more power within the political system. I want to defend the interests of workers and carers in the Dáil and to develop a political programme which sets a new direction for the country.

The fact that workers and carers have so little political power in the Irish political system is the root cause of several crises affecting housing, the cost of living, public services and climate. The political system serves an economy which is run for speculators, landlords and billionaires, while workers' rights have been diminished over time and the role of carers goes unacknowledged and underpaid. Legislative change to improve workers' rights, to reduce the cost of housing and properly recognise carers would have a transformative effect across much of the economy.

The disgraceful way the outgoing government has treated survivors of mother and baby homes, including Bessborough in Cork South-Central, would be the first issue I would raise in the Dáil. I don't expect the Minister in charge, Roderic O'Gorman, to be returned to the next Dáil but there is an urgent need to undo his cover-up of survivors' testimonies and the cruelty of his redress scheme. Some women who had their children stolen from them have not even received the pathetic "redress" of €5000 promised, while thousands others were excluded from any redress at all.