One more candidate gives her views

I sent a reminder e-mail to the candidates in Limerick City yesterday - all those except Matt Larkin, Conor O'Donoghue and Denis Riordan, because I didn't have e-mail addresses for them, although I did text Conor in fairness. This was to follow on from the questions I had posed to all the Limerick City General Election candidates at the beginning of the months - you can see those responses here and here.

Jan O'Sullivan got back to me, here's what she said:

Dear James, thanks for your email. I have answered your queries as
follows:

1. As Labour Party Health spokesperson I published a very detailed
reform proposal which would completely transform the Health Services to a
one tier system which will include primary care free at the point of
delivery as well as the complete transformation of the HSE. This is
available on the Labour Party website at www.labour.ie

2. Yes I would put a cap on the cost of Ministerial cars and also reduce
the number of them greatly.

3. The IMF/EU bailout was not a good deal. It must be renegotiated
including the rate which has been charged and also the need to bear the
burden with bond holders.

4. I am not planning to travel abroad on St Patrick's Day.

5. The Labour Party is proposing much shorter holidays for the Dail.

6. I think Politicians pay should be set by an independent body which
does not have any representation of politicians on it. I believe our pay
should be reduced, particularly the pay of Ministers and the Taoiseach.

7. The Labour Party has proposed a higher rate of tax for anyone earning
one hundred thousand euro or more. We also believe that there should not
be very high salaries for people in the public service and that we need to
have a more equal society. We intend to protect the incomes of people on
lower levels of income and on Social Welfare. The Labour Party has a
number of initiatives on job creation including a five hundred million euro
jobs fund, PRSI holidays for people who take people from the live register,
thirty thousand graduates/apprentices places, proposals to develop
Ireland's strengths, including the food industry and information
technology. As well as clean energy and tourism. If we can become a world
leader in some of these areas we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

8. The Labour Party proposes a very small team of people to advise the
Taoiseach and Cabinet and it will be focused on policy rather than media.

9. The Labour Party is the only party to vote against the bailout of the
banks.

10. I do not believe that T.D.'s should get pensions until they are 65,
that includes Ministers.

With best wishes,

Jan O'Sullivan T.D.

So that ends that then. Don't think I'll have time to post up any more responses tomorrow. At least I have six out of ten responses, representing five of the main parties - one response each from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael (albeit a very short one), Sinn Féin, The Green Party and Sinn Féin, with two from Labour. Unfortunately I didn't get a detailed response from Fine Gael, the party most likely to be in Government, so it'll be very hard to call them to task if they end up not pracising what they preached.