GE11 - Ask the Candidate - Justin Collery

Justin Collery

Hi All,

As this is the social media election I thought it would be a good idea on boards to open up a thread which will allow people to ask me questions on any policies I have.

I am running as an independent. I strongly believe that FF/FG & Lab policies will lead to an disorderly default within 3 years. We are in a crisis, all other policies are meaning less against this backdrop. You can check my agenda here - www.justincollery.com. In order to send this message, I need more first preferences than any other candidate.

Please use this thread to ask me any questions you may have.

Thanks and regards,
Justin

PS - mods, please [re]move as appropriate

Dr. Baltar

Hi Justin,

Judging by the latest opinion polls it is most likely that the next government is going to be a FG/Lab Coalition.
How as an independent do you think you can have the voice of Waterford heard best as an independent, most likely in opposition?

Cabaal

Justin , since I won't be voting in Waterford I won't be asking you any questions.

However I will say that atleast your hosting your website in Ireland with an Irish company (Blacknight.com), nice to see this considering last time I checked no party except swp.ie was hosting in Ireland, see - http://cabaal.org/blog/?p=224

Mind you I also note you registered the domain a few days ago so you likely kept this in mind given the recent media coverage about locations of political websites

ziedth

Hi Justin,

I was at the debate last night and to be honest I feared for you before the debate as I hadn't come across your name, but I was genuinely impressed. the agreeing with SF dig was excellent and really made me laugh.

My question: if you were belonging to a party to be honest i think you'd be with a good chance of my vote but the point has been made that an independent will have no real influence if elected. How would you respond to that?

And thanks for using the fourm here.

old gregg

Hi Justin,
decent performance last night and well done on that.

Do you support Focus Ireland’s call for a new government to end long-term homelessness within two years of taking office?

Thanks

Justin Collery

Dr. Baltar wrote: »

Hi Justin,

Judging by the latest opinion polls it is most likely that the next government is going to be a FG/Lab Coalition.
How as an independent do you think you can have the voice of Waterford heard best as an independent, most likely in opposition?

- Even though I am running as an independent I am not alone. I am already working with other high profile independents. Should I get elected I will not be a lone voice. It is possible we could hold the balance of power.

- If I get more no 1's than any other candidate that will send a clear message to our local TD's, and to Europe. Stop the bailout, stop cronyism, fix this country! It's a powerful message, but will only be heard if I get lots of votes.

- We need an outsider on the inside. I'll come out of the dail every week and let everybody know whats really happened, we need that, we need fresh eyes in there to be shocked at what is going on. Those in the system become desensitised by it. We need a new breed of TD.

Cabaal wrote: »

However I will say that atleast your hosting your website in Ireland with an Irish company (Blacknight.com), nice to see this considering last time I checked no party except swp.ie was hosting in Ireland, see - http://cabaal.org/blog/?p=224

Mind you I also note you registered the domain a few days ago so you likely kept this in mind given the recent media coverage about locations of political websites

Check out my business domain wi-pipe.com, it has been with Blacknight since 2004, they're great! I am also getting all my election posters and leaflets printed locally in Waterford.

ziedth wrote: »

Hi Justin,

I was at the debate last night and to be honest I feared for you before the debate as I hadn't come across your name, but I was genuinely impressed. the agreeing with SF dig was excellent and really made me laugh.

My question: if you were belonging to a party to be honest i think you'd be with a good chance of my vote but the point has been made that an independent will have no real influence if elected. How would you respond to that?

And thanks for using the fourm here.

It's a good question and needs to be answered. I think the top answer says enough. If you need more, poke me again!

old gregg wrote: »

Hi Justin,
decent performance last night and well done on that.

Do you support Focus Ireland’s call for a new government to end long-term homelessness within two years of taking office?

Thanks

Of course I would, but the fact is that the next 3 years are going to be very bad for the poor in Ireland. This is what makes me so angry. Things are bad enough without giving away €200bn+ on bank debts that are not ours. Homelessness is a failure of society that needs to be fixed. Other parties may say they have policies to fix this, but the fact is that with the bank bailout there will be more homelessness, not less in 3 years time. I'm working for a solution to that.

Thanks all, keep the questions coming, I'm off canvasing for the day so will check in this evening.

JC

Cabaal

Justin Collery wrote: »

Check out my business domain wi-pipe.com, it has been with Blacknight since 2004, they're great! I am also getting all my election posters and leaflets printed locally in Waterford.

Ah now I know you,
I actually bought a directional attena off you in Portlaw a good few years ago,

I'll give you one thing atleast you'll be excellent when it comes to infrusture and communications

ziedth

Sorry my bad,

I didn't actually see Dr Baltars(great name btw) post and that it addressed my own question.

It's more out of interest but let's say you got the required number of votes and topped the results and you had to pick another three candidates to follow you, who would you pick? If you feel uncomfortable answering this then i understand and I'm more then happy to leave it off.

Finally, do you have a short term plan to create employment in the City/County?

merlante

Nice performance Justin... after the education slot. Waterford doesn't need a 'college', but a university. Good to know the difference between an Institute of Technology, a University, and a University of Technology, particularly in this constituency. Hint: they all do degrees!

Thought you were spot on on the economic side of things. Think you might be underestimating the deflationary effects in the economy of trying to balance the books within 3 years though -- much as I'd love to see it happen. 100% right on the banks and our inevitable default. You seem to be a guy that wants to see the badness over and done with rather than kicking the can down the road, which I'd fully agree with. Terrible that nationalising the bank debt will now necessitate a sovereign default, but that's where the government have landed us.

Thought Cullinane was right to talk about Iceland. What are your thoughts on the way Iceland did things? Their 10yr bond yields have been declining since the crises and are now around 6.3%, plus I believe they still have a line of credit from the IMF.

Chris P. Bacon

Shouldn't all these Waterford election threads be merged into one?,not everybody is interested in looking at three threads on the same topic.

ziedth

Richie Cranium wrote: »

Shouldn't all these Waterford election threads be merged into one?,not everybody is interested in looking at three threads on the same topic.

Easy solution is to just ignore the three threads if someone has no interest Richie, there is to much going on for a single megathread as i'm sure you can see a good lot of us have a interest in it. If you have any further questions PM me. Justin is decent enough to answer questions here and I don't want to derail his thread.

Chris P. Bacon

Justin i have a question for you.

Do you believe that people who have absolutely no interest in politics,should be inundated with other peoples opinions all the time?,like there seems to be a lot of people on the Waterford section who are interested in politics,but isn't there a politics section on boards?,so how would you go about dealing with a situation like that?

ROCKMAN

Hi Justin
Good on you for doing this...

The days of local "looking after the lads " politics are over , look at the mess it caused , If the next Dail is full of Independents fighting for their own little piece of the pie ,it will be another disaster IMHO

IMO ..This Country needs TD'S who for the next 5 to 10 years are willing to put the Country first before local issues .It will not be a popular stance and may even cost them their seats at the next election.

If we don't fix the country ,what hope have the counties ..

My question
If you do end up in a position of power (swing vote etc) will you be willing to make the hard choices and put Country before County ?

newportwex

Mr. Collery,


Your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train.

Why are you so popular?

ziedth

newportwex wrote: »

Mr. Collery,


Your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train.

Why are you so popular?

That was season two if I'm not mistaken, good episode before they lost their way and became very political and aired episodes to push their own agenda. Anyway, you were warned by Aquos yesterday:

newportwex banned for two weeks for trolling, if you keep it up when you come back, it's a month.

Aquos76

Richie Cranium wrote: »

Justin i have a question for you.

Do you believe that people who have absolutely no interest in politics,should be inundated with other peoples opinions all the time?,like there seems to be a lot of people on the Waterford section who are interested in politics,but isn't there a politics section on boards?,so how would you go about dealing with a situation like that?

If you have no interest in politics why are you contributing to this thread in the first place. No one is forcing you to view or partake in this thread.

Chris P. Bacon

Aquos76 wrote: »

If you have no interest in politics why are you contributing to this thread in the first place. No one is forcing you to view or partake in this thread.

To quote the OP

Please use this thread to ask me any questions you may have.

So i asked him a question,is that ok with you?

PTH2009

2 Education Questions

1. Would you be in favour of making Irish a Opitonal subject in the leaving cert and junoir certs ?? could it improve students with other sunjects

2. Would you be favour of making students who do foundation maths in the leaving cert acceptable into a lot more third level courses in collleges.???

Sully

Richie Cranium wrote: »

To quote the OP



So i asked him a question,is that ok with you?

Mod Warning

That's not what this thread is for, so no its not okay.

You keep snipping and making digs because people want to talk about the future of our country and themselves. So what, just because you don't care we should all shut up and talk about what you want to talk about?

Thanks, but no thanks. Final warning - if you haven't anything genuine to talk about, don't post at all. There are multiple other non-political threads you can talk in.

Now, lets keep to the topic about asking proper political questions to the candidate. If anybody has any comments, queries or anything else in relation to moderation then PM myself or the other mods. Keep this to real political questions, likewise with other threads - stick to the topic.

Funfair

Looks like being an Independent Candidate is the latest Trend in Ireland with a wopping 170 Independent and smaller party candidates standing; FF has 75, FG - 104, Labour - 68, Greens - 43 and Sinn Féin - 41.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0209/politics.html

Justin what would happen if Independent candidates won for argument sake 60 seats, or enough seats to form a coalition. How would you decide who would be a Minister or wouldn't be. Or even who would be Taoiseach or Tanaiste. Or what exactly would happen in that situation as although your Independents your policies might be miles apart and you mighten agree with each others views on anything.

Also Justin are you unique in running as an Independent Canidate without a local issue like a hospital or a new road etc.. and do you feel without the hard core support of that local issue you might not get elected.

Chris P. Bacon

Hi Justin,

I've a a few questions for you,as someone who has recently become unemployed and joined the 14,000 other people here on the dole queue id like to know what are you going to, or what can you do to bring more jobs into Waterford?

Also on social welfare at present the wait time in Waterford is up to 12 weeks for new signings,which i think you would agree is ridiculous,what can be done to reduce that wait?

Another thing is illegal parking in Waterford,now this might not be a big issue but when people decide that they can park where ever they want it isn't right,as far as i know there is only 3 traffic wardens in Waterford,how would go about employing more wardens?

Now something close to home,and again might not be a big issue to many,but at present if i wanted a meteor mobile phone and i live in Portlaw or surrounding villages,its not possible as they don't cover them areas,now i don't see any reason why they should be left out when the company say they have 99% coverage,how would you go about getting the coverage in theses areas?

Richie.

KevIRL

As an Independent, are there any parties you would rule out supporting to help them form a government?

Fair play for taking the time and making the effort to do this

Trotter

Hi Justin,

Are you aligned with any of the high profile Independents such as Shane Ross? Have you had discussions with other independents with a view to forming technical groupings in the Dáil?

Justin Collery

ziedth wrote: »

It's more out of interest but let's say you got the required number of votes and topped the results and you had to pick another three candidates to follow you, who would you pick?

From the debate last night I thought Paudie was good. Having said that, government is about making the right decisions, not just debating. There are many in FG that are untested in this respect. The vital decisions and debating over the next 12 months will be with bankers. That’s why I am supporting Sommervile and Donnelly.

ziedth wrote: »

Finally, do you have a short term plan to create employment in the City/County?

People create jobs, not governments.
1 - Reduce all government controlled charges by 30%. Rates, water, ESB etc. This will save jobs currently on the brink and allow companies to compete internationally.
2 - Use NAMA properties as incubation centers. I've been through the HPSU (high potential start-up) system. I found the greatest benefit was the free office space and being surrounded by other start-ups. Lets replicate that.
3 - Simplify the tax code and other red tape. Armies of lawyers and accounts are not productive, they are costs. The government must be aggressive in reducing costs for business. This will lead directly to jobs. Moreover the jobs will be sustainable and Irish business will be more competitive. We are fixated [correctly] on the corporation tax issue, but there are lots of costs that feed into doing business in Ireland.

merlante wrote: »

Waterford doesn't need a 'college', but a university.

Acknowledged. My bad, realised too late when talking to change. I hope the thrust was not lost (the importance of free education, R&D and the role educational institutions can play in our recovery).

merlante wrote: »

Thought you were spot on on the economic side of things... What are your thoughts on the way Iceland did things? Their 10yr bond yields have been declining since the crises and are now around 6.3%, plus I believe they still have a line of credit from the IMF.

The Iceland route is obviously correct, except that they are not in a currency union. This means our solutions must be European solutions. I think federalising the debt is the only solution, but we must threaten default to achieve that. We must also be ready to follow through. I'm not ignorant of the consequences, but neither are France, Germany, Portugal, Spain or Italy.

ROCKMAN wrote: »

If you do end up in a position of power (swing vote etc) will you be willing to make the hard choices and put Country before County ?

It is one of the reasons I am running. I am tired of parish pump politics. By definition that means voting in the national interest. That does not mean I will not fight for Waterford, but it takes a maturity which I think has been lacking in politics (Lowrey, Healy-Rae) to know when to do what.

newportwex wrote: »

Mr. Collery,

Your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train.

Why are you so popular?

This made me laugh, sorry you got banned.

PTH2009 wrote: »

1. Would you be in favour of making Irish a Optional subject in the leaving cert and junior certs ?? could it improve students with other subjects

I have two young kids so I am deeply interested in this. In short yes. Irish is important, but students should be allowed to concentrate on other subjects should they so wish. Personally I was better at maths than at languages. I would have preferred to take another technical subject. I'm not fluent in Irish now, but that does not make me any less Irish and proud to be so.

PTH2009 wrote: »

2. Would you be favour of making students who do foundation maths in the leaving cert acceptable into a lot more third level courses in collleges.???

Depends on the course. Colleges need to be able to define their own entry requirements to ensure students will be able for the course and uphold the value of our qualifications. That begs the question whether there enough courses for those with foundation level subjects.

Funfair wrote: »

Justin what would happen if Independent candidates won for argument sake 60 seats, or enough seats to form a coalition. How would you decide who would be a Minister or wouldn't be. Or even who would be Taoiseach or Tanaiste. Or what exactly would happen in that situation as although your Independents your policies might be miles apart and you mighten agree with each others views on anything.

I think it would reflect the wishes of the people much more clearly. Think of how long the last government would have lasted if it had been FF - 60 seats, Independents - 60 seats. In such a parliament the government would not be beholden to independents with only local interests at heart (Lowrey, Healy-Rae) and so would not have to pander to their every whim. I think it would result in better law. This is extreme and unlikely, but I think the existing way of doing politics has clearly failed and we need to contemplate new ways.

Funfair wrote: »

Also Justin are you unique in running as an Independent Canidate without a local issue like a hospital or a new road etc.. and do you feel without the hard core support of that local issue you might not get elected.

This is a time of national crisis and I felt compelled to run. It is much more important than a hospital or a road. It is not unique in this election (Donnelly, Sommerville). I don't just want to get elected, I want to top the poll. Will it happen? We have two weeks to go, I'm an outsider but it's part of my make up to feel confident!

Richie Cranium wrote: »

I've a a few questions for you,as someone who has recently become unemployed and joined the 14,000 other people here on the dole queue id like to know what are you going to, or what can you do to bring more jobs into Waterford?

I'm sorry to hear that and I hope you find something new soon. I have laid out 3 points above. In short, we need to make it easier for companies to operate, easier for people to employ themselves, and then employ others (some people do not like being self employed). If you want more detail, just ask.

Richie Cranium wrote: »

Also on social welfare at present the wait time in Waterford is up to 12 weeks for new signings,which i think you would agree is ridiculous,what can be done to reduce that wait?

That is shocking. I'd like to see finger print technology introduced into systems such as this. The efficiencies to be gained would be huge. As I said last night, I also think the senior managers in Waterford need to be held to account as to why this is the case. They need to be empowered, and then held to account. 12 week waits for such a vital and basic services is not acceptable.

Richie Cranium wrote: »

Another thing is illegal parking in Waterford,now this might not be a big issue but when people decide that they can park where ever they want it isn't right,as far as i know there is only 3 traffic wardens in Waterford,how would go about employing more wardens?

This is important for business in the town, but these are local issues. This should be dealt with by the council. I'd like to see a clearer divide between national and local issues.

Richie Cranium wrote: »

Now something close to home,and again might not be a big issue to many,but at present if i wanted a meteor mobile phone and i live in Portlaw or surrounding villages,its not possible as they don't cover them areas,now i don't see any reason why they should be left out when the company say they have 99% coverage,how would you go about getting the coverage in theses areas?

Drives me crazy. I live in Portlaw, I had O2 and it was terrible. After loads of calls I just switched to Vodafone and the service is great! I would suggest moving operator. In general we have a choice with regards to voice, and we should use it. Ask me about broadband on the other hand and I would have a very different solution and attitude. There are many cases where we do not have a choice with regards to broadband provider. I think there should be a bounty attached to customers that broadband companies can claim after providing adaquate service for a set period of time.

KevIRL wrote: »

As an Independent, are there any parties you would rule out supporting to help them form a government?

Definite no to Sinn Fein.

I would support Labour as long as they were nowhere near finance (any money raising) and given strict limits to how much they could spend.*

I really think FG and FF are the almost the same and could not rule out supporting either.*

* I would be seeking to change their position on the bank bailout, government costs to business, political expenses / pensions and the deficit. These would be deal breakers. In the final analysis I don't want to be an independent in the new Dail, I want to form a new party based on new principles.


I'd like to say something more. There was a big wooha and while ago about Paul Gogerty answering questions here on boards. If I get elected I intend to continue to take and answer questions in forums such as this, and also on local radio and other avenues. I'd like to see democracy a little more democtatic. That doesn't mean pandering to local issues, but rather keeping people informed as to why certain decisions were taken. There is a great distrust of politicians right now and I believe it is due to lack of communication. I'd like to move politics in Ireland into 2011!

Keep the questions coming.

Thanks,
JC

Justin Collery

Trotter wrote: »

Hi Justin,

Are you aligned with any of the high profile Independents such as Shane Ross? Have you had discussions with other independents with a view to forming technical groupings in the Dáil?

I have talked to a number of other independent candidates. We are of like mind on many issues, agree that we need to work together, but we have not had the time to formalise anything. We will talk after the election. My personal position is that I would like to work with people like Sommerville and Donnelly, the country needs people like them and I am interested in setting up a new party. I would be very careful about who (in terms of TD's) would be admitted to the party as I believe a clean break is required. I respect their decision not to rush as that is the right thing to do. I think people should know that when voting for me they are voting for more than just an independent, they are voting for a new movement for change in politics.

I would also add to this, I was at some other meetings and came away very disappointed. I would be very weary of a FF by another name party followed by a reverse take over of FF. I'm not interested in changing the name on the door, I will only be involved with something which is a true break from the past.

Chris P. Bacon

Justin Collery wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear that and I hope you find something new soon. I have laid out 3 points above. In short, we need to make it easier for companies to operate, easier for people to employ themselves, and then employ others (some people do not like being self employed). If you want more detail, just ask.



That is shocking. I'd like to see finger print technology introduced into systems such as this. The efficiencies to be gained would be huge. As I said last night, I also think the senior managers in Waterford need to be held to account as to why this is the case. They need to be empowered, and then held to account. 12 week waits for such a vital and basic services is not acceptable.



This is important for business in the town, but these are local issues. This should be dealt with by the council. I'd like to see a clearer divide between national and local issues.



Drives me crazy. I live in Portlaw, I had O2 and it was terrible. After loads of calls I just switched to Vodafone and the service is great! I would suggest moving operator. In general we have a choice with regards to voice, and we should use it. Ask me about broadband on the other hand and I would have a very different solution and attitude. There are many cases where we do not have a choice with regards to broadband provider. I think there should be a bounty attached to customers that broadband companies can claim after providing adaquate service for a set period of time.

Thanks for your reply Justin,you have made very good points.

The issue with jobs in Waterford is that there is some coming on board this year,unlike previous years,but unfortunately employers have become very picky in who they employ,because of the situation they know people will do anything for a job these days,so its there way or the highway as such.

Thanks again i hope it go's well for you.

Trotter

Thanks for your reply Justin. Should sense not prevail and you aren't elected this time, I would really encourage you to maintain and increase your public profile in the next couple of years until the next election. You've shown a lot of get up and go and getting into the Dáil should be a short and medium term goal for you.

We could really do with having you elected. I think you and Paudie would provide really good new representation that we desperately need. Its up to us now to cop onto that.

Maybe you should just stop mentioning economics and jobs and go as 'Justin Collery, the pothole fixer'.. You'd be surprised at the numbers you'd pick up!

20016921

Justin student registration fees will rise again next year what is your opinion on this?

ArtVandelay76

Hello justin, i heard you on the radio yesterday.
I,d just like your opinion on a couple of things.

You mentioned you would like to get wage levels and the minimum wage decreased to european levels and to counteract this you would like to get the cost of living down such as gas and electricity prices.
That makes sense but what about the the biggest bill of all for alot of people the mortgage.
With people paying €1000 and more a month, alot of them single income families and with banks putting up interest rates willy nilly, how are people to pay their mortgage if wages are reduced?

Just another thing if someone unemployed gets offered a part time job of say 20 hrs a week on minimum wage, that person is not entitled to claim anything from the social welfare. So you,d be working for less than what you,d get on the dole where as someone doing three 8 hour shifts is entitled to 2 days dole. Where,s the incentive to work in that situation?

Justin Collery

20016921 wrote: »

Justin student registration fees will rise again next year what is your opinion on this?

I think we need to decide if 3rd level is free or not. Registration fees are really just a way of paying for college. I think that college should be free. But I also think, given where we are, those on higher incomes should contribute to the cost. My preferred method would be along the lines of adding the cost of college to your income, and then you pay tax on it. I don't have the space to finesse here but the general idea is that is that if you pay little or no tax, college should be free. If you pay the top rate you should be making a contribution.

ArtVandelay76 wrote: »

Hello justin, i heard you on the radio yesterday.
I,d just like your opinion on a couple of things.

You mentioned you would like to get wage levels and the minimum wage decreased to european levels and to counteract this you would like to get the cost of living down such as gas and electricity prices.
That makes sense but what about the the biggest bill of all for alot of people the mortgage.
With people paying €1000 and more a month, alot of them single income families and with banks putting up interest rates willy nilly, how are people to pay their mortgage if wages are reduced?

Hi Art, these are excellent questions.

Firstly on the min wage issue, all other prices should drop before the min wage so people maintain their standard of living.

People need to be allowed to go bankrupt quickly and easily. There is no point putting people through the mill for 12 years, it doesn't benefit the person, or society. I think 12 to 24 months should be sufficient.

The fact is that as a people we have too much debt. One thing we can be sure of is that interest rates will continue to rise over the coming years. None of the main parties seem to be addressing this point. There is no way to make the process painless, but there should be no stigma attached to it.

My main problem with the housing market right now, and for the next 10 years is that the government is artificially propping up the prices of houses. Do you think it is fair that 23 year olds today are paying over the odds for their houses because of the gambling debts of some 60 year old developer? I don't. I think it benefits society as a whole if houses are not at inflated prices. Rather than a measure of wealth inflated prices are a measure of debt.

Lastly, if you are living in modest accommodation, and you go bankrupt, your house is going to be sold anyway to pay the bank. If the property and the price are right the councils should be purchasing these properties. In years to come people can then be encouraged to buy back their houses. This at least would take some of the trauma out of the process.

ArtVandelay76 wrote: »

Just another thing if someone unemployed gets offered a part time job of say 20 hrs a week on minimum wage, that person is not entitled to claim anything from the social welfare. So you,d be working for less than what you,d get on the dole where as someone doing three 8 hour shifts is entitled to 2 days dole. Where,s the incentive to work in that situation?

Clearly this is wrong. Over complicated systems throw up results like this. Similar to my college idea above, I think in todays computerised world it should be possible to design a system where if you work any time at all, the benefits are scaled back rather than cut off completely. Say, for every €1 you earn you loose 90c of benefit. We need a simple elegant solution so the incentive to work is always maintained. Systems like that take time to design and can be hard to get right, but the benefits would be huge. I'm thinking of the apple computer of the social security world, the first time you use it, you know it's right and always simple to use!

Keep the questions coming.

Thanks,
JC

Funfair

Justin Collery wrote: »

People need to be allowed to go bankrupt quickly and easily. There is no point putting people through the mill for 12 years, it doesn't benefit the person, or society. I think 12 to 24 months should be sufficient.

JC

And leave Bad debt all over the place? That will close down half the small business in the Country as it will be abused like everything else in the Country.