We only use strictly necessary cookies to provide, secure and improve our service. Learn more
Find your match All Dublin Candidates
Robin Cafolla

Robin Cafolla

Rabharta

To prevent climate breakdown we need a revolutionary new social contract; where workers take ownership of their workplaces in order to decarbonize them. In order to create this Worker Democracy we need to build a movement of workers and carers. Rabharta is the start of that movement.

Priorities

  • Environment

    Addressing climate change is the reason this party exists. We need to solve the climate and biodiversity changes before it is too late.

  • Economic policy

    Addressing climate change means tackling its main cause; Capitalism. Climate change is an economic problem with an economic solution.

  • EU integration

    We need to build a social Europe, where cultural and social bonds are strengthened; and a democratic Europe, where the people have a direct say.

These answers were provided by the candidate

EU integration
1 of 21 questions
European integration has gone too far
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We want to see further integration on stronger workers’ rights, introducing a pan-European Universal Basic Income and on tackling climate change. However, we also believe that the financialisation of Europe has gone too far. The EU cannot be an instrument of austerity benefiting only the wealthy."

- Robin Cafolla
EU enlargement
2 of 21 questions
It would be good if Ukraine joins the EU in the next five years
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Ukraine cannot be made a member of the European Union while at war with Russia without profound implications for European and Ukrainian citizens. EU efforts should be towards de-escalation of the present conflict and a plan for sustainable peace thereafter."

- Robin Cafolla
Economic policy
3 of 21 questions
Corporation tax rates should be fully harmonised across the EU
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Ireland needs to stop operating as a tax haven and a key to stopping the race to the bottom on corporation tax is to introduce a flat rate across Europe. Thanks to our tax policies Ireland is currently a captured state and the interests of workers and carers are always at the bottom of the pile."

- Robin Cafolla
Economic policy
4 of 21 questions
The EU budget should be increased, even if this means wealthy countries paying more
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Without a substantial rebalancing of the European project no more money should be given to it. Europe needs to become a democratic union; where the MEPs can propose legislation and where people across Europe have a direct say in the appointment of the commission and the European president."

- Robin Cafolla
Commission President
5 of 21 questions
Ursula von der Leyen should receive a second term as Commission President
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Von der Leyen has disastrously overstepped her powers on Ukraine and Gaza and is set on taking the EU down an Imperialist path; where the EU military industrial complex is to be grown to new and horrific heights. Von der Leyen must go."

- Robin Cafolla
Defence
6 of 21 questions
EU member states, including Ireland, should collaborate more on defence and security
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The European Union is first and foremost a peace project. It is a way to keep the states of Europe from each other's throats; it is not a way for Germany to project military and political might into the developing world."

- Robin Cafolla
Defence
7 of 21 questions
The EU should have a common army
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "A common army would only allow the European Union to begin waging war. European countries already collaborate on defence, and at present there is no realistic threat to European security. After its failure to annex Ukraine, Russia is not going to invade the European Union."

- Robin Cafolla
Defence
8 of 21 questions
The EU should finance more weapons for Ukraine
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The EU should bring in immediate and full economic sanctions against Russia. All oil and gas imports should be stopped. All assets of the Russian state and Russian oligarchs should be confiscated. That needs to be done in tandem with tapering military funding to Ukraine."

- Robin Cafolla
Defence
9 of 21 questions
Ireland should retain its ‘triple lock’ rule for deploying troops
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The only reason Ireland would remove the triple lock is to wage war. Irish neutrality, eroded as it is, must be protected and any move to change the triple lock needs to be subject to a referendum. The question anyone who wants to remove the lock needs to answer is; who do you want to invade?"

- Robin Cafolla
Foreign policy
10 of 21 questions
The EU should suspend its trade agreement with Israel
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The EU needs to begin treating Israel like the apartheid state it is; and institute full economic and cultural sanctions. Right now Israel has €4bn worth of trade ties to Ireland, including in goods which have potential military uses which undermines our neutrality."

- Robin Cafolla
Foreign policy
11 of 21 questions
Each member state should have a veto on EU foreign policy
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Until the EU is a fully democratic entity the veto allows us to prevent the nations under the sway of the far-right from eroding our democratic and civic interests."

- Robin Cafolla
Immigration
12 of 21 questions
Ireland should participate in the EU’s new migration pact
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The migration pact is a strengthening of a cruel Fortress Europe approach to refugees. Ireland treats refugees abysmally. They receive a paltry €38.80 a week, and cannot work to contribute to Irish society. We need to improve refugee integration by allowing them to work and pay taxes."

- Robin Cafolla
Immigration
13 of 21 questions
Member states should share responsibility for asylum applications in the EU
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Refugees need to be shared across Europe; with a common & humane standard of living & the opportunity to work and contribute to the nations they make new homes in. The hope is always that they can return to their homes, but while here they should be allowed to help us make our countries better."

- Robin Cafolla
Immigration
14 of 21 questions
The EU should operate search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "It is absolutely inhumane to allow people to drown in the sea. We have a responsibility to save lives, and someone’s language, origin, religion or the colour of their skin should never be a factor in deciding whether they should live or die."

- Robin Cafolla
Immigration
15 of 21 questions
Ireland needs to do more to ensure asylum applicants have suitable accommodation
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We need to solve the housing crisis immediately. Irish people are being forced out of the country en masse and 71% of people under 30 are stuck living with their parents. Asylum seekers have been treated abysmally in Ireland since before the housing crisis began."

- Robin Cafolla
Immigration
16 of 21 questions
There should be checkpoints at the border with Northern Ireland to limit the number of asylum seekers coming to Ireland
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "No, of course not. The Good Friday agreement is predicated on the free movement of people between the two jurisdictions. Peace on our Island is only enabled by the dissolution of barriers between North and South, and any moves to reverse that must be opposed."

- Robin Cafolla
Environment
17 of 21 questions
The EU’s Nature Restoration Law, requiring rewetting of peatlands, should be adopted
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The Nature Restoration law doesn’t go far enough to protect the environment. It doesn’t provide funding for the measures it proposes & it places no burden on nations to fully implement the changes. We support a stronger Nature Restoration bill that will help end the climate & biodiversity crises."

- Robin Cafolla
Environment
18 of 21 questions
The EU’s goal of a 55% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is too ambitious
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "It isn’t ambitious enough. To have any chance of preventing climate breakdown we need Europe to reach zero emissions by 2030. To achieve that we need to build a movement of workers and carers who will strike for the revolutionary changes necessary to save the planet."

- Robin Cafolla
Environment
19 of 21 questions
More windfarms (including onshore windfarms) should be built in Ireland
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Ireland needs a major expansion of renewable energy. We believe that communities need to be given a stake in energy production; onshore windfarms should be owned by local communities, with the benefits of that ownership going to those communities. The state needs to build and own offshore windfarms."

- Robin Cafolla
Agriculture
20 of 21 questions
Ireland should continue to seek special treatment for Irish farmers on the Nitrates (water quality) directive
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Removing the existing nitrates derogation without compensating farmers is an example of eco-austerity. It should not be removed without first securing farmers’ incomes which the present use of nitrates fertiliser guarantees."

- Robin Cafolla
Agriculture
21 of 21 questions
The EU should reduce subsidies for high-emissions farming, such as beef and dairy
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We need to make farming pay for farmers, and reintroduce full-time farming to this country. We should be shifting funding to help farmers diversify their farms and to restore and manage habitats. We need to subsidise farmers to produce food that we currently import."

- Robin Cafolla