The leader of the Labour Party has said that her party is serious about forming part of the next government.
As the party gathered in Malahide in Dublin today, Ivana Bacik predicted that a general election was imminent.
Labour is planning to work with other centre-left and climate-focused parties after the election to form "a critical mass", Deputy Bacik said.
It would be a constructive move to work with others who share the party's vision after the election, she added.
"We want to deliver change for communities, for people that we represent, for communities that are crying out for more homes, for the people facing eviction that I meet every week, facing eviction for whom the tenant in situ scheme is simply not working," Ms Bacik stated.
The Labour leader insisted that her predecessor in the role, Tipperary TD Alan Kelly, will "absolutely" stand in the general election.
She said that he was unable to attend today's meeting because he has been working on a campaign to prevent the moving of 30 asylum seekers from Borrisokane, where they have been living for some time.
Earlier, the party called for increased funding in the Budget to tackle child homelessness.
Today's meeting is being attended by its parliamentary party along with candidates running in the upcoming general election who are discussing Labour's core policies and what it would hope to achieve if elected to government.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Deputy Bacik said that these include a children's charter to give every child a fair start in life.
Labour has selected 16 general election candidates to date and that number is expected to climb above 30 in the weeks ahead.
The party returned 56 councillors in the local elections earlier this year.
Ivana Bacik said that the party had a very strong result in the local and European elections, with a Labour MEP being elected for the first time in over a decade, and she wants to build on that success in the general election to return a strong team to the Dáil.
Ms Bacik also said that Deputy Kelly will run in the next election, and pointed to a new generation of Labour councillors who will also be running.
