Steven Matthews (Green Party)
‘I KNOW the Green Party will talk loudly about green issues, which is good,’ Andrew Lindsay.
‘We need to do something about the climate,’ he said. Issues at the top of Mr Lindsay’s list include health and housing. ‘I’m not directly affected by housing but I am concerned it’s not going the right way,’ he said. ‘Health seems to be a bit of a mess. I don’t expect any one term in government to sort these things out but I’d just like to see more coherent plans.’
Adrian Carroll is cynical about politicians forming the current and previous governments. ‘People in general are sick of the same parasites getting in every time,’ he said. ‘Lining their own pockets and getting their pension. They have no interest in the Irish people.’ His main concern is the HSE. ‘The whole healthcare system is a mess,’ he said. ‘It’s a shambles. It always has been, but they’re not willing to address it. They’re giving money away left right and centre, to the GAA, €120 million to the north, and three billion on broadband. They’re willing to give broadband to somebody at the expense of someone on a waiting list for hospital. Health has gotten worse and is getting worse.’ Jack Parker, at 18, will be voting for the first time and was out canvassing for Steven, also for the first time
‘It’s really important for young people to have a voice,’ he said. ‘The green Party is aligned with some issues which other parties are not.’
Cllr Matthews will be getting a vote from Michael Grant, who knows him well. ‘My hobby-horse is the property tax,’ he said. ‘I’ve no problem paying it but it should be income related. A household with one or two people living on an old age pension is paying the same as their neighbour who might have several people in the house working - that’s not fair and nobody seems to want to address it.’
‘I have a disability, so health would be a big issue for us,’ said Philip Boxberger. ‘The health service has definitely deteriorated.
Philip had polio as a child and explained that sufferers also get post-polio syndrome in adulthood. He does not qualify for a medical card as his wife is working, and is campaigning to have polio included on the restrictive list of disabilities entitled to a discretionary medical card. He has had a meeting with Minister for Health Simon Harris ‘He is in the position to do that,’ said Mr Boxberger. He said that there are around 7,000 people still in Ireland who contracted polio as children and have a range of disabilities as well as post-polio syndrome.
As for Cllr Matthews, Mr Boxberger will give him a vote. ‘It might be number two,’ he said. In any event, his first preference won’t go to either FG or FF. ‘We were very impressed with Stephen Donnelly when he got elected, and then he went completely to the other side.’