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April Sheehan Corkery

April Sheehan Corkery

Independent

I am running for the ordinary rural person, on a platform of rural development, worker owned industry, workers rights & preserving the rural way of life while still being sustainable & progressive. I represent the working class, coops farmers, artisans, sole traders & the ideals of Connolly & Larkin

  • Priority: Environment, energy, agriculture

    No cow culls & carbon tax, we need systemic solutions to our environment & the principles of agroecology & regen ag is the answer.

  • Priority: Housing

    Deregulation of planning for owner occupiers & housing coops, and planning exemption for social housing, as well as a state construction company.

  • Priority: Taxes and spending

    Make the corporations pay & build indigenous worker owned industry with it, we need to build our country up ourselves & be beholden to none

These answers were provided by the candidate

Taxes and spending
1 of 32 questions
Money that is currently being saved for future policy challenges (such as climate change and an ageing population) should be spent now on things like housing and healthcare.
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Our country is economically & socially faltering with the crises in housing & healthcare. An aging population is easier paid for if not suffering medical neglect & improving the housing stock is a climate positive anyway. The crises we have are costing us, and it’s easier saved if they were fixed. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Taxes and spending
2 of 32 questions
Taxes on people earning over €100,000 a year should be increased.
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "I think we need 3 tax bands, 20% 40% & 60%. 40% should be the guide & not come in until 10,000 above the median salary, 60% should come in at twice the median salary. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Taxes and spending
3 of 32 questions
The Universal Social Charge (USC) is a necessary source of revenue and should be kept.
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We need to be reducing all burdens on workers at this time of cost of living crisis, but if the USC must be kept the funding needs to be ringfenced for the department of social protection. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Taxes and spending
4 of 32 questions
Tax on inheritance should be reduced, even if it means cutting back on public spending or increasing other taxes.
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "What we need is things that encourage the elderly to retire & pass on property & businesses while still alive. I think we should have multiple living succession schemes so a younger person willing to take things on can, & pay for the retirement of the older person, related or not. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Taxes and spending
5 of 32 questions
Universal payments, such as child benefit and energy credits, should be replaced with more targeted measures aimed at the less well-off.
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "I actually believe we should be gradually move to adopting UBI with top ups for people who need extra (eg elderly & disabled) instead of wasting more money we could be giving to people on beurocracy. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Housing
6 of 32 questions
The government should focus on making houses more affordable rather than providing financial supports to first-time buyers.
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The first time buyers subsidies are largely just another giveaway of public funds to the private sector & will raise the price of housing. First time buyers should be supported I would suggest money towards their deposit, but only when we have more affordable housing for them to buy"

- April Sheehan Corkery
Housing
7 of 32 questions
Planning guidelines should be relaxed to allow for more one-off rural housing
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Planning regulations should be relaxed across the board for owner occupiers & housing Co-ops building to standardised plans & manufactured homes. Local authority housing should be exempt from planning entirely "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Housing
8 of 32 questions
A rent freeze should be introduced across the country, even if it risks landlords leaving the market
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Not only do we need rent freezes we need to actively remove investment funds from the rental economy & replace them with social housing, owner occupiers & housing co-ops "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Housing
9 of 32 questions
The Local Property Tax should be scrapped, even if it means less money available for local councils
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "It’s not a wealth tax, it’s a get the poors out of my posh area tax. It should only be applicable to second & subsequent homes. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Transport
10 of 32 questions
The provision of public transport (trains, light rail, buses) should be prioritised over building roads
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We still need the roads. If even for the busses that’s a nonsense statement. We do need to be opening rail to everywhere that used to have rail at the foundation of the state, for a start. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Transport
11 of 32 questions
The passenger cap at Dublin airport should be lifted
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Send more passengers to Shannon "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Environment, energy, agriculture
12 of 32 questions
Carbon taxes should continue to increase each year
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Carbon tax on individuals doesn’t work & only serves to castigate the poor "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Environment, energy, agriculture
13 of 32 questions
Ireland should give up its exemption under the EU Nitrates directive
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "All we need is to plant willow, alder & poplar in the raperian areas of waterways & practice good ground management. The nitrates on farm aren’t the problem, it’s stopping them washing off is what’s needed. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Environment, energy, agriculture
14 of 32 questions
The government should introduce measures to significantly reduce the extent of livestock farming in Ireland
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Absolutely not. We need to be utilising our livestock in ecosystem repair via regenerative practices, and using slurry digestion to reduce methane & power the country. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Environment, energy, agriculture
15 of 32 questions
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals should be allowed in Ireland, to improve security of supply
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We have more than enough methane if we use slurry digestion to meet our gas & power needs we don’t need to be supporting American gas fracking. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Social issues and education
16 of 32 questions
Abortion should be allowed in a wider range of circumstances.
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "This one now, I wouldn’t be informed enough to comment on & would need some examples. I’m not terribly well up on the medical end of it, I’d defer to the professional opinion of doctors & experts. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Social issues and education
17 of 32 questions
Policies to increase the representation of women in politics have gone too far
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "If things were to be fair it’d be 50/50 if ye can’t compete with a woman lads, just say so. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Social issues and education
18 of 32 questions
New laws on hate speech should be introduced to protect vulnerable communities
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "I don’t trust the government to bring them in, in such a way that it won’t target people fighting hate speech. Or people criticising the government. We could first & foremost do with laws on media standards in this area, but that would require the government to stop using the media to propagandise. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Social issues and education
19 of 32 questions
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have too much power in Irish policy making
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Absolutely not. Grass roots action is only possible via building organisations. Your community group, food bank & trade union are also “NGOs” funny that the faux anti establishment say nothing of their own NGOs. They just don’t want anyone there to oppose them. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Social issues and education
20 of 32 questions
Religious instruction should only take place outside school hours in Irish primary schools
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Depends on what parents want, but it should definitely be optional. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Social issues and education
21 of 32 questions
Gender diversity and transgender issues should be taught in Irish primary schools
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Like kids are going to be encountering these issues in life, they may as well have some age appropriate idea of what they are about. The only thing “confusing” children is lack of information. Freely available, factual & age appropriate. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Immigration and asylum
22 of 32 questions
More resources should be given to improving conditions for asylum seekers
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "If we continue the way we are going we are going to have a racially charged higherarchy with a desperate underclass & all the associated problems with that. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Immigration and asylum
23 of 32 questions
Communities should be obliged to take their fair share of asylum seekers, even if there is local opposition
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Depends on “fair share” they have doubled the population of some areas & exempted others. Numbers should align with numbers of existing population & be actually spread equitably, into houses not glorified camps, that we may live in peace. The government seems to be trying to ignite a race war. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Immigration and asylum
24 of 32 questions
Accommodation centres for asylum seekers should not be located in economically disadvantaged areas
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "There’s no point in adding to the disadvantage of areas, with that said I oppose IPAS centres anyway. We were promised an end to direct provision & got worse. House them equitably in communities they can become a part of, actually in houses & flats not glorified squats & camps. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Immigration and asylum
25 of 32 questions
Rules on immigrant work permits and student visas should become more restrictive
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "I’ve a bit of nuance here, I don’t agree they should be more restrictive in general but I believe they should have to join a trade union as a condition of their visas to stop their labour being exploited. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Crime and policing
26 of 32 questions
The solution to anti-social behaviour lies in tackling poverty and disadvantage rather than tougher policing
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "100% and we should be looking at decriminalising many things & seeing what we can have non poliecing enforcement of eg giving blanket third party insurance & putting the cost of that & road tax onto fuel to free up resources for to tackle sexual & violent crimes. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Crime and policing
27 of 32 questions
Gardaí should take a more robust approach to dealing with political protests
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "The guardai are already heavy handed enough (too heavy honestly) in dealing with progressive protests, if they could police violent far right protests equally that would solve the problem they don’t need extra powers. We can’t allow our civil liberties to be eroded. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Foreign policy and defence
28 of 32 questions
Ireland should continue to provide financial and political support to Ukraine in response to the ongoing war
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We need to be humanitarian & speak up but we also need to mind our military neutrality. What we are doing is fine but we shouldn’t be doing more than we are. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Foreign policy and defence
29 of 32 questions
The EU should suspend its trade agreement with Israel
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "Israel should be under the same sanctions as Russia, Russia is bad, Israel is objectively worse. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Foreign policy and defence
30 of 32 questions
Ireland should retain its ‘triple lock’ rule for deploying troops abroad
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "We need to strengthen our neutrality I actually believe in independent armed neutrality similar to Switzerland. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Foreign policy and defence
31 of 32 questions
Ireland should collaborate more with other EU member states on defence and security
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "This is a lurch towards a European army & over my dead body will our children be fighting for the interests of France & Germany. "

- April Sheehan Corkery
Irish unity
32 of 32 questions
A referendum on Irish unity should be held in the next five years
  • Agree
  • Neither agree nor disagree
  • Disagree
  • No opinion
Comment: "I’m going to agree, but I’m also going to say that if we want it to actually be successful we have to be attractive to the people of the north, thus we have to push hard on housing & set up an NHS "

- April Sheehan Corkery

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