Labour leader Alan Kelly has said the party has a lot of work ahead of the next election.
Speaking to the Your Politics podcast he said it has been difficult as the new leader not being able to visit constituencies around the country.
He said the party has a lot of new members and that he phones every one of them when they join.
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Alan Kelly said: "It is very difficult to mobilise politically outside of the arena of Leinster House at the moment and that is a negative for the Labour party"
He said the party needed to get more women elected.
Labour, he said, have been pioneers in relation to gender eqaulity but that he is aware that the party's six TDs are all men.
It is a different story for the party in the Seanad, with four women out of five Senators.
Alan Kelly said there will be a new, young, good suite of females running in the next election "whether it's a local or a general; I tend to think it will be a general first."
He said party leaders should worry about polls - and that he said "where we are at, it's not good enough" referring to the recent Business Post Red C poll which suggested that is Labour at 3% behind the Social Democrats which is on 4%.
In relation to forming an alliance with the Social Democrats, another party of six in the Dáil, also on the left and with a history of members being in the labour party, Mr Kelly said into the future "something may happen" but that they are their own party.
He said you couldn't rule out something happening in the future but that nothing is happening in the background.
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