8 April 2026
CPI National Congresses past and future – a critical analysis
Introduction
Under the slogan “National and Working Class Unity,” the Communist Party of Ireland held its 26th National Congress on 17 and 18 September 2022 in Dublin.
The Political Resolution of the 26th National Congress emerged at the end of proceedings. This document is 39 pages long and 16,500 words longer. While some of the analysis is useful and enlightening, the fact is that it provided no foundation on which to build any way forward for progressive policies or for the party itself to develop into a political entity to be reckoned with.
Over three parts, we will show in some detail, why that turned out to be the case.
Right now, the party is preparing for its next congress in April, 2026. Branches and individuals are meticulously crossing all their i’s and dotting all their t’s preparing the next political resolution along with a multitude of individual proposals and amendments.
So, before the next political programme is agreed, what became of the existing political resolution? How did it fare?
In our analysis, we will look at some practical and strategic/organisational sections of the Programme and we will finish with a look into the future. We will start with the issue of housing.
PART 1
Housing (and health)
This area is dealt with between Sections 85 to 94 and below we show the subsequent contribution by the party to addressing this very important issue. We had considered doing a chapter on health (Sections 95 to 104) but there is even less meat on the bone on this issue than on the housing issue – a similar trawl through the website and Socialist Voice resulted in very few references to health issues.
A little history
In early 2021, the Dublin Branch of the CPI initiated a Dublin Campaign Coordination Committee (DCCC). This committee – after deliberating for six months – in July, 2021 produced a 70+ page report and concluded that public housing was the most important issue for the Dublin Branch to campaign on. With great urgency, only two years later, the much-hyped Aaron Nolan-led housing campaign was launched: Dublin Activists Start Public Housing Campaign: “Dublin activists from the Communist Party Of Ireland took part in the first public outing to highlight the demand for Universal Public Housing. Comrades spoke to people on Dublin’s Thomas Street. In what was a worthwhile morning’s work.”
A worthwhile morning’s work it may well have been but it has not been referred to in any CPI publication since. As, indeed, the Dublin Campaign Coordination Committee has not been referred to since either.
A deeper analysis of why the Public Housing Campaign was doomed to failure can be read here Serious about Socialism (30 June 2023)
Actual references to housing issues since 2023 in CPI website:
The posts listed below are the only posts we could find on the CPI website that referred directly to housing since the launch of the Public Housing Campaign in mid-2023 until the end of 2025:
DCAR condemn Governments disregard for Homeless crisis as first death of the year occurs (10 January 2024): This as a Dublin Communities Against Racism (DCAR) statement not directly related to any CPI campaign.
Financiliasation of Housing & Elections – Where Do We Go From Here? (7 August 2024): An interesting piece by Eugene McCartan, though it does not even answer the question posed in the headline and there is no linkage to any CPI campaign. While casual contributors could be forgiven for failing to provide any linkage to a CPI campaign, there is no excuse for the likes of McCartan in that regard. Unless, of course, if no such campaign existed? But, it did exist or, it was supposed to exist.
The last post, so to speak, related to housing on the website for 2025 was a one-line, 11 photo piece National Housing March – Dublin 5th July (6 July 2025).
Meanwhile, we learn that the CPI has a queer committee: On Saturday past, the queer committee of the Communist Party of Ireland (14 July 2025): though we could find no reference on the site or in Socialist Voice to a housing committee.
How did Socialist Voice fare since 2022?
We now move on to look at what contribution Socialist Voice had made to the housing issue. Below is the list of articles we could find going back to early 2022:
Landlordism and Sexual Exploitation: Laura Duggan on 4th April 2025 – Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
Housing activists occupy the Department of Housing: Miranda Lynch on 5th May 2023 – Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
All-Ireland Public Housing: Clover Carroll on 4th April 2023 – Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
The housing crisis is a cultural crisis: Max De Wilde on 4th January 2023 – Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
Housing for the future: Rose Volker on 4th January 2023 – Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
The housing crisis, vacancies, and mobility: Miranda Lynch on 5th September 2022 – Content not linked to a specific CPI position and more about public transport than housing
Housing: Crisis caused by design: Jimmy Doran 6th June 2022 – Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
Housing must be a public good: Editors 1st May 2022 – Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
Housing and the Irish state: Graham Harrington on 1st May 2022 -Content not linked to a specific CPI campaign and no specific remedies put forward
Public housing the solution: Aaron Nolan on 3rd March 2022 – Content not linked to a specific CPI position but Nolan stands out with an attempt at making progress: “Many of us will be familiar with the protest chant Housing is a human right—This is why we have to fight. Here’s a new one: Public housing is the solution—Put it in the constitution.” Thank you, Aaron.
Public housing certainly is a solution but Nolan – like the party itself – offers no pathway towards that end. Worse still, there is no evidence of any coordination within the party or between the party and other external interests except with the Dublin Communities Against Racism (DCAR).
All this represents the CPI response to the housing crisis and the crises experienced by people in this country every day. We accept that various other articles and posts in the website and in Socialist Voice also refer to housing issues but the outcome is just the same: no path forward and no invitation or opportunity for people to become involved.
HEALTH:
There is little or nothing to analyse here.
At one point, prior to the 2022 Congress, the CPI National Executive Committee (NEC) established a Health Committee. It was so serious about ensuring the effectiveness of the committee and maximising the knowledge of the participants that it pointedly did not ask some health professionals who were members of the party to participate – as if it had a large bank of health professionals to draw from. It didnt.
Then, People Before Profit and Sinn Féin announced the possible formation of a health alliance and immediately the CPI Health Committee was abandoned. Just like that. The PBP/SF initiative didn’t develop but the CPI had lost its appetite at this stage.
However, the CPI did have one consistent position: it advocated for a unified, all-Ireland publicly funded health service, free at the point of use. This policy emphasised dismantling the current two-tier system, eliminating private health involvement, and establishing a single, comprehensive public system run for, and by, the working class.
Needless to say, this would require just a little work. Feel free to search out any evidence of such a campaign and see how you get on.
Then, take time to read Sections 95 to 104 of the 2022 Political Programme and experience the full disconnect between words and actions.
One medical professional (again, prior to the 2022 Congress) put together the bones of a possible cross-border campaign and presented it to the Betty Sinclair Branch (a branch with members in the north and south) as a reasonable and appropriate platform from which to start such an all-Ireland initiative.
The proposal did not even get a hearing at the Betty Sinclair Branch. One member opined that getting involved is such a campaign at that time would interfere with all the work that needed to be done to prepare for the next National Congress – eight months away!
Instead, the proposal was banished, first to a sub-committee, and then to the (national) Education Committee! There, it died a quiet, natural death as was intended.
A number of NEC members were also members of the same branch and they showed no inclination to even look at the proposal either. Of course, the proposal – in two parts – is a matter of record – including in the Betty Sinclair Branch records.
The importance of all this will come into sharp focus in the near future.
Part 2 will look at some practical and strategic/organisational sections of the Programme