The Limerick Blogger Election Project: Patricia “Trish” Forde-Brennan (Green, E)

Patricia “Trish” Forde-Brennan is the Green Party’s candidate for Limerick East in the upcoming General Election. As part of the Limerick Blogger Election Project, we asked all candidates if they would like to submit an article on either Limerick or on why we should vote for them. Ms. Forde-Brennan has the distinction of being the only candidate so far to offer to write an article on both. The article she submitted to us today is on why we should elect her. I would like to thank her personally for taking the time out to write for us, and would love to receive her proposed article on Limerick. Here is Ms Forde-Brennan’s unedited article.

Being a Limerick Green

In many ways I am different from the other candidates. I am not native to Limerick (I came here in 1989) and I do not belong to a long-established party. Instead, I am a member of the Irish Greens, which is a young, and here in the Mid-West, a relatively unknown political party. This December, we celebrate twenty-five years in existence and we are eager to participate in government if we can see some green priorities implemented.

Most members of the public associate the Greens with being concerned with the Environment and it is true to say that we are the only party who has, since our formation, considered environmental concerns to be of national concern.Take the issue of public versus private car transport. Most of us would readily agree that it is not possible to travel (at least part of the time) without a car. As a Green Party candidate, I want to see government changing this scenario and giving us a realistic choice in how we travel. This is important in terms of rising fuel costs and in terms of our financial liabilities under the Kyoto Protocol. Greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector have been increased by 150% over the last ten years, thus making it difficult for us to reach Kyoto targets. If we consider that in 1990 the sector produced 4.5 million tonnes of CO₂, and compare it with the 2005 figure of 15.2 million tonnes of CO₂, we can see that such a degree of increase is worrying. On further analysis, it was shown that 37% of these emissions came from the private car and 37% came from road freight. These figures make compelling argument for the urgent need to fast-track public transport investment and development. As a Green TD, I want to see the development of the Western Corridor with links from Shannon to Limerick and a high speed link from Shannon to Dublin Airport in order to strengthen our economic base and to develop the potential of tourism. Further to this, I believe we need to plan now for a light-rail system to open up Limerick City and rural areas within the county. The Limerick Green Party in 2004 launched details of a park-and-ride scheme for Limerick, with a proposed second rail station in the general area of Morrison’s pub on the N24 where the new by-pass runs for about half a mile roughly alongside the railway line to Nenagh, Limerick Junction and Dublin. Our plans would be supported with an adjacent regional bus depot with bus corridors to and from the city centre.

Rising fuel prices and the reducing stocks of oil are forcing us to consider the subject of alternative energy sources. There is no one quick fix solution, at least not yet. Nonetheless, we must identify a range of alternatives for today while at the same time, committing to targeted funding for research and development in order to identify and design options for the future. Under the Greens, our goal is that 50% of our total energy needs will be provided from renewable energy by 2020 and that by 2050 our country will be powered by cheap, clean and secure renewable energy. We propose ten policy changes to help us make the switch and central to this would be a partnership approach with political parties (as followed by the Danish Parliament), industry, and employee and farming groups to ensure that they are at the centre of our national economic planning process. Further details of these changes can be viewed on our website. Job creation is necessary for a healthy economy and we will create employment which centres around sustainability, waste management and knowledge-based, internationally-traded services. We believe in innovation and enterprise and we want local businesses to flourish. UL and LIT are well placed to address these challenges and the Green Party will invest in research and development as we believe that the new technologies needed for a sustainable economy are going to provide the jobs of the future. To this end, we favour switching from labour taxes to resource taxes to help us get there.

So far I have referred to issues which are traditionally associated with us, but that is not the whole picture. We have published policies on areas such as education, pensions, childcare, taxation and aging and older persons. They are worth a read if you wish to get a sense of what Greens believe in outside of environmental matters. Below are some of the specifics:

Education

• We will increase investment in Education by an extra 1 billion euros annually over the next ten years. This will be index-linked and subject to evaluation after the first year to insure that it is an effective use of monies.
• One year of state-sponsored preschool.
• The PE and sports grant of 600 euros annually will be reintroduced
• We will spearhead rights-based education legislation to ensure access to education as a fundamental right, thereby amending the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 2004
• We will reduce individual class size to a maximum of 25
• We will ensure that school buildings form part of new large-scale residential developments as a precondition for the granting of planning permission
• We will increase school maintenance grants from 491m to 760m per annum

Taxation

• We wish to move from taxation of labour and place it onto socially and environmentally harmful activities
• Tax credits and bands should be inflation-linked
• Reduction of employers’ and employees’ PRSI contributions, which could be funded by the revenue generated by levies on pollution.
• Residency rules should be revised to ensure that those who benefit from Irish society also contribute to Irish society.
• Reintroduction of Bank Levy at 5%.
• Relief on Stamp Duty should be extended to older persons who are downsizing and first time buyers who wish to purchase the property that is being made available as a result of such downsizing.
• Refundable parenting tax credit.
• Refundable tax credits can be used for care work and other unpaid, socially valuable work such as voluntary work.

Ageing and Older Persons

Our policies for older persons’ affairs come from a belief in citizenship, equality and respect. Key points include:

• We will initiate the drafting of a National Positive Aging Strategy and will ensure that a Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and a Cabinet Committee on Ageing and Older Persons take responsibility for its implementation. Primary and secondary legislation will be age-proofed.
• Establish a housing authority and a housing needs survey to address housing needs for older people. The construction of adaptable housing should be promoted, and sufficient, well-serviced sheltered accommodation should be provided within the community. Older persons should have the right to a full-needs assessment.
• We support a strong state pension, a reformed social insurance system to fund second tier pensions, and a system of tapered matching contributions to ensure that all older persons have adequate incomes.

The Limerick Blogger kindly invited candidates to submit a piece on either “Limerick,” or “Why you should vote for a particular candidate.” I chose the latter but will happily write an article on Limerick if asked to do so. Green politics is a way of life to handle the post-carbon age. In government we will plan for the next generation and for solutions for the challenges—such as Climate Change–which face all us regardless of age. We are a modern party fit for the twenty-first century and ready to govern. I joined the Greens because of our core principles, which are central to our policy initiatives. If you believe it is time for a fresh clean approach to politics, then vote number one for me in the general election.

For further details on our energy policy changes, other policy details, and our seven core principles click on to our website: greenparty.ie.

Once again, I would like to thank Trish for taking the time out to participate in the project, and wish her the best of luck in the upcoming election.