Last Call For Questions for Pat Rabbitte

4 Responses to “Last Call For Questions for Pat Rabbitte”

1. # Comment by Iain Jul 25th, 2006 10:07

   Some personal questions are always enlightening:
   -Where are you going on holiday?
   -What’s your favourite movie?
   -Which team did you support in the World Cup?

   And on the more political bent:
   -Do you agree with the ESRI’s commentary on the future of the economy, and in particular on the Government’s attitude towards it?
   -What can Labour do about the biggest issue for young people today – housing – both in the sense of prices and of the disgraceful state of management companies?
   -Is it really possible to fix the health service, given that four different Ministers have now tried, most of them considered quite competent, and failed?

2. # Comment by Keith Gaughan Jul 25th, 2006 18:07

   I’m way too late to submit any questions, but they’re ones I’d like to hear politicians from any party responding to:

   • Ireland has become somewhat overdependent on foreign companies. What does your party intend to do to encourage native entrepreneurship?
   • What’s your party’s position on ministerial responsibility?
   • If your party came to power, what would it do to roll back laws brought in by Michael McDowell which have eroded our personal liberties? (Obviously, you don’t want to ask a PD this question.)
   • What’s your party’s position on automatic registration of voters at the age of 18?
   • What does your party intend on doing to curb the expansion of Dublin at the expense of the rest of the country, especially the counties outside of Leinster?
   • It’s not possible for we as taxpayers to read many of the government reports, &c., that we’ve already paid for online. The report of the Barr Tribunal is an example here: to read it you have to go to the Government Publications Office and purchase a copy; it can’t be read online. What does your party intend to do to remedy this situation?
   • ComReg has repeatedly displayed a lack of courage when dealing with eircom’s lack of progress when it comes to opening up to competition, especially in regards to broadband. Is your party going to get ComReg to do their job, and if so, what are you going to do?
   • There’s a democratic deficit in local government in this country, with town, city, borough, and county councils actings as little more than maintenance bodies lacking any real powers to deal with local issues and local circumstances. Does your party intend on promoting real decentralisation of power from central government to local government? And if so, how?
   • Leading on from the previous question, does your party intend on turning the position of County Manger from an appointed position into an elected position?
   • What does your party intend on doing to promote gaelscoileanna?
   • What other reforms do you intend on bringing in concerning how the Irish language is taught? For instance, to you intend on first promoting oral fluency before written fluency? Currently the opposite is the case, with written fluecy and learning-by-rote being promoted before oral fluency.
   • Concerning the health service, what are your thoughts on why a country like Ireland, which spends quite a bit per head of population on health, has a far worse service than the likes of France, which spend comparatively less and yet provides a cheaper and more efficient service?
   • Currently it’s possible for somebody to get a moderate payrise at work and end up poorer due to the way our tax and benefit system works? What do your party intend on doing to remedy this situation?
   • Leading on from the last question, what does your party intend on doing to simplify and unify the tax and benefit system?
   • We currently have plentiful natural resources off our coasts in terms of natural gas, &c., however the nation benefits little from the exploitation of these resources, as shown by our reliance on oil and the recent substantial rise in Bord Gais rates, which is being blamed on rising prices abroad. What does your party intend to do so as these resources are used to benefit the Irish economy and reduce our reliance on foreign sources of energy?
   • Leading on from the last question, one of those resources is wind power. What does your party intend on doing to promote the construction of offshore wind farms?

   There’s others bouncing around my head, but that should be plenty for now.

3. # Comment by Conor Black Jul 25th, 2006 19:07

   What Does your party intend to do to cut Ireland’s CO2 emmissions?

   What does your party intend to do on the issue of Ireland’s neutrailty and the use of Shannon?

   Do you agree with election partner Enda Kenny on the issue of Irish in Second level, because I fell if it is made non compulsary that it will see the end to the Irish language

4. # Comment by Simon Jul 25th, 2006 19:07

   i think the time is up for the questions. Sorry. But you never know we might have another interview at sometime. So keep the questions coming. We often email politicans wiith questionaires and will be certainly deleving into some of these for future suggestions. keep them coming

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