Ó Coistín a Candidate for Kildare North By-election

Seanán

Hi,

Seanán Ó Coistín here. Now that Charlie McCreevy has accepted the position of Irish European Commissioner, I am declaring my intention to run as a candidate in the by-election that will probably be held in September or October.

I was the youngest MEP candidate in the European elections in Ireland. I also ran in the Clane Electoral area for Kildare County Council. Despite not having any campaign team, little funding, no posters, no leaflets, no advertising and very little media attention still over 3000 people knew who I was to vote for me. Tally figures show 1028 people voted for me in county Kildare and I intend to use this as a base to hopefully win a seat.

I have not made any decisions as to whether I will run as an independent candidate or as a party candidate. After the June elections, four parties (Fine Gael, An Comhaontas Glas, Labour and Fianna Fáil) intimated that I might join them to be a candidate in future elections. I have not made any decisions about this yet.

For those who are interested you can learn more about me at www.ocoistin.ie It is still set up for the European elections, but I will have that changed soon. I will also outline my policy platform at a later date.

Keep an eye and ear out for me in local and national media.

Victor

Who says there will be a by-election? FF can only loose by having the election (although it is handy to have that extra vote now and again).

Although if Bruton goes to Washington there would be two seats up for grabs.

And the good Burghers of Meath and Kildare can be under-represented again.

ReefBreak

What's your policy on taxation? Do you agree with the PD/McCreevy policies, or the the more Labour/Left-wing theories. Socialist or Liberalist?

Nuttzz

are you the stop the paedo's bloke?

ionapaul

Originally posted by Nuttzz
are you the stop the paedo's bloke?

His posters were hilarious. Now was he supposed to be the paedo or what? (sorta looked like it on the poster) Why was he wearing the sweater vest? (again, made him look extemely suspicious) What exactly would/could he do about Leinster paedos while in the European Parliament? Did he just choose the one thing every voter can agree to be against on a whim, or did he have some personal reason for stopping the paedos?

Seanán

The person ye are thinking of is Clifford T. Reid. He too was an independent MEP candidate. He is from Athy in south Kildare. I'm from Kilcock in the north of the county.

My political views are on the left, so I would not agree with all Charlie McCreevy and Mary Harney have done. They made the country wealthy but not all of it and still certain things are not getting the capital investments that they should. I don't believe in high rates of taxes though. I think moderate levels of tax help drive an economy forward.

ishmael whale

Originally posted by Seanán
My political views are on the left

Do we take this to mean that you would only consider running for An Comhaontas Glas or Labour?

Are they aware of your interest in running for them?

Are they aware that you are under the impression that they have invited you to run for them?

toffeeman

Originally posted by Seanán


I have not made any decisions as to whether I will run as an independent candidate or as a party candidate. After the June elections, four parties (Fine Gael, An Comhaontas Glas, Labour and Fianna Fáil) intimated that I might join them to be a candidate in future elections. I have not made any decisions about this yet.

How exactly did these parties intimate that they wanted you to join them?

In your MEP campaign you stated
"As an Independent candidate, his election will provide a better choice to voters who are fed up with dirty politics. "

If you get involved with these parties, are you not getting involved in dirty politics?

De Rebel

Originally posted by Seanán
They made the country wealthy but not all of it and still certain things are not getting the capital investments that they should. I don't believe in high rates of taxes though. I think moderate levels of tax help drive an economy forward.

Lets analyse this.................

1. "They made the country wealthy but not all of it" - so we need to redistribute wealth, which presumably means higher taxes on the wealthy bits to give more to the bits that are not wealthy => higher taxes
2. "still certain things are not getting the capital investments that they should" so we need more investment which requires either higher taxes now to fund investment directly or higher taxes in the future to fund the borrowing which is used to fund additional capital investment => higher taxes
3. "I don't believe in high rates of taxes though" OK, so we need higher taxes to redistribute wealth and fund additional capital investment, but you do not want higher taxes => lower taxes
4. "I think moderate levels of tax help drive an economy forward." So we don't want higher taxes because we want to continue driving the economy forward. => lower taxes

Hmmmm, clear as mud

What exactly is your taxation policy?
Do you believe that tax rates should be higher/lower/stay the same?
Do you believe that the tax code needs to be rebalanced?
Do you want higher capital investment, and how would you fund this?
Do you want wealth redistribution, and how would you organise/fund this?


PS Welcome to boards, I for one welcome an aspiring ploitician interacting here.

De Rebel

Originally posted by toffeeman
How exactly did these parties intimate that they wanted you to join them?

In your MEP campaign you stated
"As an Independent candidate, his election will provide a better choice to voters who are fed up with dirty politics. "

If you get involved with these parties, are you not getting involved in dirty politics?

Involved in dirty politics, never, (photo in bottom left hand corner)

Annasopra

This is being discussed elsewhere:

http://www.politics.ie/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=viewthread&tid=2134

Seanán

Hi,

Seanán again. I am revising my website for the upcoming by-election in Kildare North. If anyone would like to ask me a question for inclusion in the FAQ section, please send the question to seanan@ocoistin.ie

I might not answer all the questions. If some questions from different people are similar I will give one answer. I will only answer political questions, not insulting or personal questions.

I look forward to the interaction.

Seanán

Seanán

My father is a member of Fine Gael ans on the day of the election, a member of Fine Gael from Kilcock suggested that I join Fine Gael locally. He said that Fine Gael in Kilcock was generally old and they needed young members like me to reinvigorate their branch and that I was exactely the kind of person they wanted.

A Labour member said to me the same day that I might be with them at the next election.

At the count centre for the European election in Pudden Hill, Co. Meath. I met both Trevor Sargent and Mary White, leader and deputy leader of the Green Party/ An Comhaontas Glas. Trevor actually gave me a membership form and Mary White said she would send me one.

Later that night, I spoke to Liam Aylward and he suggested that I join Fianna Fáil if I wanted to stand in future elections.

My experience from the June elections was that the media give far more attention to party candidates, even some times when party candidates might treat the media in a dismissive way a la Royston Brady. In modern election campaigns, you need to have the media on your side. Not all party politics are dirty. It is more the perception of politics.

Taxation:
I believe taxation should be low as people are happy to pay their taxes the lower they are. Plus when people have more money to spend they spend it and this injects more cash into an economy. The more cash spent, the more wealth generated, the more wealth that is generated can be taxed at a low rate and the revenue collectors gather more taxes as there is more wealth in society.

I would like to more capital investment into schools, play and sports facilities and in public transport apart from roads. The funding for these would come from the revenue generated from the lower taxes.

Victor

Originally posted by Seanán
Taxation:
I believe taxation should be low as people are happy to pay their taxes the lower they are. Plus when people have more money to spend they spend it and this injects more cash into an economy. The more cash spent, the more wealth generated, the more wealth that is generated can be taxed at a low rate and the revenue collectors gather more taxes as there is more wealth in society.

That sounds like a [strike]noob[/strike] under-developed taxation strategy that doesn't really understand the basics of economics. Spending money doesn't creat wealth. Work creates wealth (having capital helps).