Live Pre-election Q&A session

with Senator Alex White, Labour Party
held Tuesday 15th February 2011

Mykidstime Hi Folks, we're going to wrap it up now. Thanks so much Alex for taking part, the questions were flying in and he did very well to keep up. For any questions that we didn’t get to, we will make sure Alex sees them.
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Niall Devitt Well done Alex on taking part in the Q&A on Facebook.
Patricia Fitzgerald Thanks a million Alex for taking the time to talk to us. Best of luck with the rest of the campaign....keep going for the majority! @alexwhite
Mykidstime Thanks to everyone for your great questions :)
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Rachel Maguire Thanks for answering our questions..
Ber O'Connell Hope labour do it!!! They'll get my vote anyhow!!!!
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Alex White Enjoyed that hour very much, thanks to all who joined in.
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Theresa Carter sorry - got home a little too late :)
Carol Faughnan Thank you Alex
Lèon Fox Thanks Alex
Denis Leonard thank u AlEX

Lèon Fox Will Labour introduce college fees? Will we be looking at US scale fees by the time our primary school children get to third level?.
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Carol Faughnan Good question Leon..
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Alex White No. We removed college fees in the 1990s and will not re-introduce. Education is a public, not a private good. We want to maintain access to third level based on ability and not parental income.
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Helen Gaffney Will labour cut Child Allowance? Can you categorically refuse a SF Coalition? Will a FG/ Labout coalition last the term when their policies seem so far apart?
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Helen Gaffney should be FG / Labour
Alex White No to cutting child allowance. No to SF coalition. We're campaigning for Labour and only Labour!
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Lèon Fox Do you really think a Labour majority is possible?
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Alex White Only the people can decide that....Would anyone ever have believed that FF would be polling on 10% - down from 42% in 2007?! Big change IS possible
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Mykidstime Tara asks: I would like to know if labour will seek to reverse the hse/ff decision not to increase funding to the jack and Jill foundation which has led to vital nursing services to families with children with life limiting conditions being cut?
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Mykidstime Alex said: I know about this and argues against it at the time. Will certainly seek to change this if at all possible
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Eilis Mulroy Alex the Labour party said they will legislate for abortion in line with the British model. If this happens, children with special needs will be the first victims of this policy as happened in Britain. Is there any chance that Labour would rethink that policy. I think it could earn you a lot of votes if it did.

Patricia Fitzgerald I put this to Dan Boyle yesterday..but no comment, so what does Alex White say: On the issue of food...we as a country need to get more money into government coffers....so how about slapping a tax on fatty foods..coke, McDonalds (all fast food) the 3 aisles in every supermarket of rubbish...then maybe lessen the tax that indiginous farmers need to pay to gov - so for example 10% on fast foods etc, lessen healthy veg/fruit by 4%, so therefore making money for gov, helping ind industry, lessening future health bills and having a more healthy population....just an idea! Looks like we're all going to suffer, but why not try to have some positive consequence to this.
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Alex White I certainly think we should try to deal with fatty foods. Starting with a tax might not be the best or the fairest way for a lot of families though, given that it would likely be passed on to the consumer. Education and better information would be the way forward
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Lèon Fox good answer
Patricia Fitzgerald I understand this...but if veg/fruit and healthy options were cheaper than the nasty option...wouldn't that be a whole lot better...I think when we were kids, that was the case, but it seems to have turned on its head....and it is a socio-economic issue - true that poorer families don't eat as well as better off - that simply should not be! I agree that education is paramount and I hope you'll be supporting the count me in campaign to have calories printed on our foodstuffs.
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Alex White Certainly I support any campaign to do this. Feel free to contact me further on this with details etc.
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Patricia Fitzgerald Thanks Alex, here is a link to the campaign: http://www.rte.ie/ot/countmein.html - it's a part of RTE's Operation Transformation.
Lèon Fox Or the only option to find cheap fruit and veg is going to lidl etc instead of supporting the local fruit & veg shops!
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Patricia Fitzgerald This is true Leon...but event there the rubbish is cheaper than the veg if you're feeding a family ...it's a shame - would be great to do something to support local producers.
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Carol Faughnan The SVP at Xmas turned down donations of home grown produce because it wasn't certified (reference: Wexford People News). This seems like bureaucracy gone mad. Communities can go back to growing their own food which is healthier and cheaper ... what can Labour do to support this?
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Mykidstime Eimer asks: Same question as last night: With a primary curriculum based on active learning and group work how would your party suggest teacher's achieve this with growing class sizes? And what will your party do to reduce class sizes and huge unemployment in the education sector. Will any of this years teaching graduates get a job?
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Patricia Fitzgerald Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
James A. Garfield (1831 - 1881), July 12, 1880
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Mykidstime Alex answered: We are deeply committed to education - it's a commitment that I know Eamon Gilmore has and will make a priority if Labour in government. Again, it's about resources and that's why the budgetary and growth strategy is so vital
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Patricia Fitzgerald As a public librarian and mother...I hope that commitment stands for Libraries too!
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Maeve Ahern O'Neill I agree with Patricia. I hope the school fund is returned. Such a bad judgement call abolishing a such needed resource.

Martin Borrowlord How would labour make sure the process of secular get speed up? And what will labour do to make sure that you don't have to pretend to be religious to become a teacher?
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Martin Borrowlord that should be *secular education*
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Mykidstime Alex answered: We want to reform the system. We've given a commitment to establishing a time-limited forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector. There will then be a White Paper for consideration and implementation by government so we can have a system that provides a sufficiently diverse number of schools catering for all religions and none. Parents and local communities should have a say
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Martin Borrowlord LOL did his FB crash?
Martin Borrowlord I am very happy to hear someone from the political establishment say that! Patronage is a real bad thing because when you have problems with the Board of Management you have no where to go.
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Mykidstime Martin due to the new format of Facebook pages and the number of questions being asked, some of the answers are quickly going down the page, just want to make sure everybody see's them
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Martin Borrowlord No I just thought that because you answered for him. Can I say that I think this is a great thing you are doing here! Fair play to organise this!! And fair play to the participating politicians, it must be hard for them to answer everyone so quickly.. Thanks Kidstime.
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Denis Leonard so what are ye going to do about FAS?
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Alex White In relation to FAS we published our plans yesterday - in newspapers today. Want to change it to a National Employment Service to integrate employment services to job seekers previously carried out by FAS with the delivery of social protection benefits. It would act as a one stop shop for people seeking to establish their benefit entitlements, looking for a job, and seeking advice about training options
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Carol Faughnan If Labour get into power, will anyone be getting fired?
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Carol Faughnan Or to put more politely, what changes will the Labour party make to the system to make these quangos and various government orgs more transparent in their spending? And will any penalties be put into place for the abuse of spending by officials and CEO's of these orgs
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Denis Leonard so whats labour stand on ISRAEL,and whats going on over there?

Sinead Lawlor All of my family have emigrated, including my retired parents who can't afford to live here. What can Alex White say to me so that The Labour party will do so I don't see my 2 young boys go the same way. For jobs or even an affordable lifestyle?
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Helen Lynch Walsh We where only talking about whether our 3 boys would have to emigrate when they're older - I really hope not.
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Lèon Fox I'll be the one sending mine abroad if things are as bad as this when they're older!
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Sinead Lawlor It's a lonely place to be Helen. FF have stolen my family.
Helen Lynch Walsh ‎'Dislike' Sinead :(
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Alex White We've published our plan for jobs. While we accept that it will be a huge challenge, we think that there are great opportunities for Ireland to recover and for grwoth to return. Have alook at my website and at our jobs policy. Most importantly, we cannot hope to get recovery if we hammer the economy with 3 more budgets like the recent one. This is what both FF and FG want to do. We need to get teh deficit down but in a manner (and at a pace) that allows for growth and jobs
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Sinead Lawlor Thanks Alex. I'll introduce myself next time I see you (which is often), best of luck and I'll have a good look at your own website.
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Lèon Fox So what sort of budget would you propose? There has to be cuts somewhere so who loses out?
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Alex White We have published a detailed budgetary strategy covering the next three years. You can read it through my website...50/50 between tax and cuts which we say is fairer than the other parties!
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Bridgette Keane Thanks Mykidstime and Alex White it was great to see answers to questions that were a little less fluffy. We will wait and see what's taken on board by the next Government.
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Astrid Fitzpatrick Where does labour stand on implementing the National Cycle Policy Framework?
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Alex White As a daily cyclist, and a member of the Dublin Cycling campaign, I would be enthusiastic about pressing on with the specific proposals contained in this Policy.
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Trevor Byrne QUESTION for Alex White - Fine Gael's finance spokesman said yesterday he was in favour of selling off State assets. if the labour party are in a coalition government with Fine Gael what would you do to stop this from happening if anything?
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Alex White We disagree with FG on this. They are not at all clear on what they mean by "non-strategic" assets. We think that successful State companies should be maintained as vital elements of our economic recovery. We would not agree to selling the family silver in this way!
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Trevor Byrne but it will happen once fg get in they like ff will sell us all out, try not to help them if you do get in!!
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Liz Morgan What is your position on the approval process currently in place whereby applications made for the likes of Domicillary care allowance are being refused by clerical staff, even when doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists provide supplementary supporting documentation for applications?
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Alex White I'm not aware of the detail of this problem and would welcome more information on precisely what you say is occurring here
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Liz Morgan Thank you Alex, will pass on the information to you!
Lorraine Dempsey The Special Needs Parents Association has well over a dozen examples of where DCA has been refused and granted on appeal. Why already stressed parents have to go through such a lengthy process with clerical staff who have no experience in assessing health or psychological status is beyond me. Parents apply out of necessity not for the hell of it. Although 309e a month can never compensate nor cover the extra expense involved in raising a child with special needs.
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Liz Morgan Why make blanket cuts to school services like the Home/school liasion role when rural communities will suffer so very much for it's loss and the cost saving is so very small. The impact will be significant across the community and will only increase social problems, drop out rates, lack of relations and links into school in years to come.
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Alex White I agree
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Debra Crawley Doyle It's hard to fathom really.
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Liz Morgan What is the answer? Would this change if you/your party were elected Alex?
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Mykidstime Deirdre asked earlier "What does your party intend to do about ghost estates?"
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Alex White This problem is one (major) manifestation of the serious economic and banking crisis and can't be dealt with in isolation. Elements of our approach to this issue are: demolition/completion of part-built houeses as appropriate; the acquisition of homes for social housing; and the sale of houses on open market if possible or by rent-to-buy schemes or co-operative home ownership schemes.
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Mykidstime Have Labour plans to introduce more rent-to-buy schemes and co-op home ownership schemes?
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Bridgette Keane With Tourism vital to out Country can I ask Labours view on the difficulties that the Chinese and Russians tourist have on obtaining visa's to visit Ireland these are the high spending people we need to be attracting.
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Alex White It's crazy that there are such delays. We will certainly look at this problem which has only recently come to my attention!
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Mykidstime SNPA asks: How would Labour address a new situation that has arisen as a result of capping the no. of SNA's at 10575, where school principles are now either STRONGLY discouraging parents from enrolling their child with special needs or refusing to enrol them prior to a pyschological report being produced? This is a new, perverse and discriminatory phenomenom.
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Alex White I think it's vitally important that we maintain the system whereby children with special needs are educated in mainstream schools. We've been very clear on this - Ruairi Quinn very strong on it. We will certainly seek to reverse this cut. We need to ensure that our budgetary strategy leaves room to fund basic services - as well as room for growth and jobs!
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Snpa Pro If you have'nt already done so , we would appreciate it if you would familiarise yourself with the issues herein. 'Your Child's Future, Your Vote' Election 2011 Guide What parents should be asking their polititians. http://bit.ly/exEgXL
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Mykidstime Rachel Maguire asked earlier
Hi can I ask the same question as last night please?: What is your partys stance on GM foods, fluoride, aspartame and the labeling of them?
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Alex White We have said before that we want to increase consumer information through labelling and strict controls of over-use of lawful animal remedies, fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.
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Mykidstime Bridgette Keane asked earlier:
Question for Alex White. It is beginning to emerge that Primary Schools are starting to refuse Children with Special Needs access to be educated in Mainstream school due to capping of SNA's what is the Labour party stance on this could they or would they reverse this cutback.
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Alex White I think it's vitally important that we maintain the system whereby children with special needs are educated in mainstream schools. We will certainly seek to reverse this cut. We need to ensure that our budgetary strategy leaves room to fund basic services - as well as room for growth and jobs!
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Bridgette Keane Can you confirm that if we end up with a FG/ Lab government that out children who are due to start school on Sept will be able to many of these Children will have turned 6 by then and legally must be enrolled. I understand that none of us should be asking for promises and none of us want empty promises. But our children deserve to be treated equally and they will grow up and be entitled to vote themselves.
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Alex White You can be sure that I will do everything I can, whether Labour is in government or not, to achieve a reversal of this cut
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Sophie Le Cuiche Not being Irish, I don't have a vote in this election but I'd like to think that my opinion counts; I have friends who have children with special needs, these children are progressing well in Mainstream school and it is crucial that they ge...t the same chances as the other children. My daughters would be devastated if their "special needs" friends had to leave their school. The special needs assistants are doing a great job in the school and they should be kept on. Just because a child has learning difficuties or was born with physical/mental disabilities does not mean that he/she is not worthy of a good education.
Taking these children out of mainstream school is marginalising them; please let's not create a Nazi Ireland!See more
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Mykidstime Welcome to our 2nd Live Q&A with Senator Alex White of the Labour Party http://www.alexwhite.ie/. Alex will answer your questions on how Labour Party policies affect families and children.
So thanks to Alex for taking the time to join us and remember to refresh your screen (F5 button) to see new questions and Alex's responses