Email the General Election 2016 candidates in Limerick City - Thomas Bibby

There will be a general election in February 2016.

In Limerick City, there are currently 8 people looking for our vote.

If we don’t ask questions about things that are important to us, we let the media and focus groups do the asking for us.

I know politics is boring for most people but here are 3 very quick things you can do to exercise your democratic rights:

1. Check that you’re registered to vote (and remember to vote of course!)
2. Take the smartvote.ie quiz which attempts to match you to candidates based on your response to certain questions
3. Email the candidates in your constituency with questions about issues that are important to you.

Here are the email addresses of all the candidates running in Limerick City (alphabetical order!), all nicely formatted so you can paste it into your email client

James Gaffney Green Party <jamescbgaffney@gmail.com>,
Sarah Jane Hennelly Social Democrats <sarahjanehennelly@gmail.com>,
Michael Noonan Fine Gael <minister@finance.gov.ie>,
Willie O’Dea Fianna Fail <willie.odea@oireachtas.ie>,
Kieran O’Donnell Fine Gael <kieran.odonnell@oireachtas.ie>,
Jan O’Sullivan Labour <jan.osullivan@oireachtas.ie>,
Cian Prendiville Anti Austerity Alliance <cian.prendiville@limerick.ie>,
Maurice Quinlivan Sinn Fein <cllrmauricequinlivan@gmail.com>

Or, here’s an email link that should open in your email client, with the To: and Subject: fields filled out for you.

Even though I’ve decided on my first preference, I still have to rank everyone else from 2 to 8. I’ve done similar emails in previous elections and the responses have really helped me to decide how to vote.

Here’s my email (I’ll update this post with any responses)

Hi there,

I’m emailing you because you’re running for election in Limerick City. In case you don’t get chance to call to our house in Farranshone, I’d like to ask you a few questions (plus, this way we both get to keep warm and dry!):

1. Climate Change:
   How seriously should we take climate change, and what specific policy measures do you think we should take to combat climate change? I’m particularly interested in measures you think that might slow economic growth in the short term but which would have long-term positive effects for our country.
2. Our villages, towns and cities:
   Our regional towns and cities are suffering. Here in Limerick we’ve seen our city as well as the villages in our county undermined by ribbon-development and one-off housing in the countryside. How do you think we should balance people’s desires to build where they want, with the need for better planning that avoids sprawl and strengthens our villages, towns and cities?
3. Crime:
   Do you agree with tougher sentencing for criminals, or more rehabilitation? I’m particularly interested in your position on how we should approach drug addiction within the justice system.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my questions, and wishing you the very best of luck on the campaign trail,

Thomas.