Conor MacLiam (United Left Alliance)

candidate Dáil election

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This is my response to ´s election request:

Dear ,

My two children also attended the KSP and so I share your concerns. The lack of choice regarding education in this country is abysmal. Unfortunately both of my children were forced into religious secondary schools through lack of choice. While the secondary schools in question were excellent in their own way I firmly believe that children should not have to pay lip service to a faith that is not theirs in order to get an education. In this day and age this is simply unacceptable.

The Socialist Party believes in the separation of church and state. While of course we defend the rights of individuals and groups of people to practice their religion, we do not believe that any church or belief system should be forced on society as a whole. We would argue that if religious orders wish to run schools with a religious ethos they should do so privately and fund the schools from their own monies. All publicly-funded schools should be run on a secular, co-educational and democratic basis with input from parents, the community and especially in the case of secondary schools from the students themselves. The Irish school system is outdated and in dire need of change. If I were elected I would of course use my seat to support a secondary school for Kilkenny that would be run along these lines.

Regards,

Conor

Dear Ms.

Public transport in Ireland is sadly not up to par when compared to other European countries. Part of the reason for this is that during Fianna Fáil’s tenure over 80% of spending on transport went directly onto funding for road buildings and not onto sustainable public transport which would have eased congestion and pollution. The government consciously cut across both Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus from extending its services to cater for the transport needs of people. Instead they tried to use tax payer’s money to subsidise private bus operators.


Rather then pumping billions into failed banks, bailing out bondholders and allowing the wealthy to evade paying their fair share of taxes the Socialist Party would like to take this money and invest it in a programme of socially necessary works to bring down unemployment and thus stimulate the economy. As well as building schools and hospitals etc. we would also invest in public transport infrastructure.


We are in favour of a publicly owned and democratically run public transport system. Nationally that means an integrated network of efficient and frequent train and bus services where all major destinations are connected, linked to ports and airports.


We would also like to:

• Extend local services so rural areas are properly linked with towns and the national network.
  
• Invest in stock so all cities can be covered by an integrated network of trains, trams and buses.
  
• End the facilitation of private operators in the provision of public transport which inevitably creates a downward pressure on wages and conditions of all transport employees both private and public.
  

We also believe that:

• Transport services for the public must not be run on a commercial basis or for profit as that means they inevitably will remain limited services and a far cry from what people need.
  
• Democratically controlled public companies could build and operate transport services more efficiently and cheaper than private operators, while guaranteeing decent pay and conditions for transport employees.
  

- The boards of public transport companies should have a majority of representatives of transport employees and of working people generally who use the services, with some representatives from local and central governments.

I hope this answers your question.

Regards,

Conor