Questions to ask political canditates for the 31st Dail

What do you see as the main difference between the role of a local councillor and T.D ?

How do you see we can improve the service provided by our elected Dail representatives? Should they work on local issues that should be the remit of local councillors or national issues and policy development?

As a TD what would you like to legislate for?

There currently 6000 people politically appointed to over 800 quangos. How do you believe government appointments to state boards and semi state companies should be undertaken?

What level of funding have you received to support your election campaign? and If elected where you are a standing councillor who have you appointed/named to replace you on the Local Authority?

What is your position or your parties position on the State sellling off state assets and privatising utilities and semi state companies such as the ESB, Bord Gais, Bord Na Mona and Coillte.

Do you believe the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has worked? And what do you see as the future for banking in Ireland?

This Universal Social Charge (USC) is a tax and does not provide a benefit to those paying the charge.
All individuals are liable to pay the USC if their gross annual income is more than €4004 (€77 a week). This will impact most severely on lower income families. Do you support the introduction of the universal social charge.? If elected will you fight to retain or remove it ?

Do you or your party support the recent reduction in the minimum wage, blind pension and carers allowance and would you reverse this decision?

We have entered a period of major upheaval with rising food prices, a growing world population, climate change, peak oil and increasing pressure on natural resources, what will this mean for Ireland and what policies would you or your party advance to address these issues?

Ireland prides itself as a food exporter, yet nearly half the food we eat in this country is imported. How do you explain that imports of food and drink from the UK to Ireland (pop 4.5 million) grew by 6pc in 2010 to €3 billion (equivalent to the average person eating €1000 worth each year) while our exports to the UK (pop 65million) were valued at €3.5 billion? If current trends continue Ireland’s food trade surplus will continue to diminish. What would you do to protect and expand food production in Ireland? (Note: The rise in imports is due to the power and purchasing decisions of retail companies such as Tesco, Lidl, Aldi. Who control the largest market sector in Ireland, Irish food producers cannot compete with the power of large multiples)

What is your position on education? Do you support the existing Government policy decision that fully qualified teachers should work for free to gain work experience? If so what about other unemployed graduate professionals in other disciplines? And why not politicians?

If our domestic economy continues to decline and we must pay the interest on the IMF-ECB bailout and sovereign debt as a result of the bank guarantee how will the state fund future spending on social welfare, healthcare and education?

The national pension reserve fund was established to fund the future public sector pensions; now that it has been used for bailing out the banks what plans have you or your party for the state to fund pensions in the future?

Social welfare spending accounts for 38% of government spending, the main areas of expenditure include old age pensions, widows, widowers and one parent families, Illness, disability and caring allowance, unemployment support and child related payments. With an ever-increasing older population and higher unemployment the demands on social welfare will rise. How will we fund this service in the future? And where do you see cost reductions or savings can be made?

Ireland spends less on education than most other OECD countries. Funding primary education is vital to ensuring access to education for all our children and laying the foundation for future education, growth and development. Spending on secondary and third level students is double what is spent on primary pupils. Do we need to invest more in primary education? Where can we make savings in education spending so we that our investment is more sustainable and long term?

Do you agree that the state should continue to facilitate and fund children being educated in prefabs and temporary accommodation while hundreds of millions was spent on a failed government decentralisation policy including brand new state of the art facilities for public servants? How would you address this imbalance and injustice?

What reforms would you like to see in how Dail Eireann works?

Do you agree with the abolition or reform of Seanad Eireann?

What we have learned from the past ten years is that a government is only as strong as its opposition. Do you believe that a Fine Gael/Labour coalition with a massive Dail majority and weak opposition is in the best interest of the country at this time? And if so please explain why?