Bríd Smith (born 18 September 1961) is an Irish People Before Profit–Solidarity politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-Central constituency since the 2016 general election.
Early life and political activism
One of seven children, Smith grew up in Rathfarnham. Her parents were prominent in the Irish Republican movement, and her father was a trade unionist. In the 1980s, Smith worked as a librarian, but was sacked for not passing a picket.
In 2001, she was an ATGWU shop steward and Secretary of the Campaign Against Partnership Deals. She was a spokesperson for the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign. She has addressed the crowd at demonstrations, such as the visit to Dublin by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the 2004 protests against the Iraq War. Smith was a long-time campaigner on repealing the 8th amendment to legalise abortion in Ireland, and has described its repeal as one of the highs of her career.
Political career
Smith first contested a general election in 1997, when she ran unsuccessfully for the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), receiving 0.54% of the vote in Dublin South-Central. She ran in Dublin South-Central again for the SWP at the following election in 2002, once again failing to be elected with 1.4% of the vote, before unsuccessfully running for the party in the 2004 local elections, placing fourth in a three seat ward with 11.76% of the vote. In 2007, she ran in Dublin South-Central for a third time, this time for People Before Profit. She received an increased share of 4.39% of the vote but once again was not elected.
She was elected to Dublin City Council as a People Before Profit candidate for the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh local electoral area in 2009, and re-elected in 2014. Smith was director of elections for the People Before Profit at the 2011 general election. She stood as a candidate in the Dublin constituency at the 2014 European Parliament election, but was not elected, receiving 6.8% of the vote. After the results had come in, Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins and incumbent MEP Paul Murphy suggested that Smith's candidacy had caused a split in the left vote and cost Murphy his seat.
Smith was elected as TD for Dublin South-Central at the 2016 general election, on her fourth attempt at election to the Dáil. On 10 March 2016, at the first sitting of the 32nd Dáil, she seconded the nomination of Richard Boyd Barrett for the role of Taoiseach.
At the general election in February 2020, Smith was re-elected as a TD for the Dublin South-Central constituency.
In July 2020, Smith was investigated by the Dáil Committee on Procedure for comments she made in the Dáil and online about High Court judge Garrett Simons, which were described by government TD Charles Flanagan as "an attack on democracy itself." The previous month, Smith had said in the Dáil that it was "a day when tens of thousands of workers will wake up to the realisation that a learned judge of the High Court, who earns more than €220,000 per year, has decided in his wisdom that an electrician who may earn €45,000 per year is possibly overpaid, and has then struck down a sectoral employment order that will affect tens of thousands of workers already on low pay. This is a war on workers, and it is time for workers to fight back."
In July 2023, Smith announced she would not contest the next general election.
Political views
Smith has criticised health cuts implemented by the government at Cherry Orchard Hospital, and organised a protest against Mary Harney, on behalf of the Save Cherry Orchard Hospital Campaign. She opposed the Treaty of Lisbon. She opposes the alcohol industry's sponsorship of sporting events.