Fuller Democracy

Transparency is a surprisingly big issue in local politics and it has a lot to with how local councillors have interpreted their roles over the years, that is to say mainly as some kind of complicated messenger boys. The keepers

I’m pleased to see that some of the other candidates have finally noticed that there aren’t enough schools around. However, the major difference between them and myself is this: they focus on giving you information about ‘when the new school

I have to admit this is one of the things that puzzled me long before I got into politics. It covers not only activities for adults and teenagers to do in their leisure time, but also commercial offerings. Truth be

As some of you know, I worked to collect petitions against cancelling our Express buses under Bus Connects (link here). However, the transportation issues go further than that, and they are not going to be solved purely with buses, which

I’ve also blogged about issues relating the quality and safety of roads over the years (see here and here). This was actually a topic I brought up in Fuller Democracy. In some areas the issues with roads are of a

Issue # 5 is the bins – privatization and costs thereof. I blogged about this just a few weeks ago, so I refer to that.

I think that mental health is really something that, after gaining attention a few years ago, has slipped onto the back burner again. For government – not for the people who are bringing this up to me at the door.

I’ve often heard that disability can be invisible, and when I started canvassing, I learned how true this is. Disability definitely affects more people than I would have estimated it did before I began canvassing during the marriage equality referendum

Things are pretty desperate when people want more police around – and people in our local electoral area do. It’s one of the most common things I’ve heard while canvassing over the past year, The problem is that when you

  THE Issue.  Rent costs. Mortgage costs. Pyrite. Vulture Funds. Cuckoo Funds.   The time and energy people spend worrying about the roof over their heads is immense. As you will see from my brochure, I advocate serious rent caps,

I canvass all the time throughout the year, but around election time, we start to do larger canvasses. Most of my friends are working full-time and can only get time off to come out during elections. Ife and Tony Dimbo

A huge question that comes up constantly for me is: would you really do what people wanted – even if you want something different? And I always answer: yes, I would, because I am more committed to democracy than getting my own

First a little reminder of what is at stake with bins: So – what went wrong with the bins? Well, back in 2011, Fingal County Council decided to privatize bin collection, because in the aftermath of the economic crash money

St. Catherine’s is one of my favourite estates to canvass, because I feel like people there are really involved in their area and they always take the time to share a lot of information about what is going on. That

Healthcare, strictly speaking, is not a local election topic, because there isn’t very much that councillors can do to directly affect this. However, running in an election and/or being a councillor gives you a platform to advocate for change even

I have been pushing for online voter registration for a long while now. As part of the  Public Consultation on Proposals to Modernise the Electoral Registration Process I have made the submission below to John Paul Phelan, T.D., Minister of State with

Something I have lobbied for in the past at the Fingal PPN and that I think is very important for our future is participatory budgeting. Now, you may be thinking, what is participatory budgeting and why do I need it?

Most of you are probably aware that a plan to change the Dublin Bus network is currently underway. You can read more about it at (www.busconnects.ie), but the main gist is that bus lines will be simplified and instead of

Well, it hasn’t been long. Like all Irish politicians, I find myself reduced to writing about the State of the Road. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The particular roads in question here are one Skerries Road which passes from

On April 24th and July 10th, I was invited to attend ‘Creative Fingal’, public events intended to “capture the existing creative culture picture in Fingal” and to inform the development of the five year culture plan for 2017-2022. These were well-attended

On March 15th I went down to Lucan-Palmerstown to observe the South Dublin participatory budgeting project. I spoke to Independent Mayor Guss O’Connell, who has been spearheading this project for years, and who finally succeeded in getting 300k EUR set

On March 11th, I attended the 4th National Conference of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). According to their brochure, SSDP is “the largest international network of students on the globe dedicated to drug policy reform”. The brochure goes on to

One of the most popular outcomes of Fuller Democracy was improving mental health services in Ireland. I estimate the running costs of a good, free-to-user mental health service in Ireland to be approximately 122 million Euro per annum (based on

Filmmaker Jonathan Victory followed my election campaign in February of last year to document how my message of revitalising democracy was received on the doors and in the polls. Jonathan acted as his own crew, filming, editing and even recording

While I have been silent for a long while, I have been busy. One of the most popular decisions in the Fingal People’s Programme was providing better working opportunities for the disabled. Right around the same time we closed the

As a candidate in the next Irish general election, I am often asked to sign up to pledges, binding me to support certain laws as a TD. However, as I will allow my constituents to have a binding say in

Since the election, I have been focusing on putting digital democracy into practice, and I’m happy to announce that our first event will be coming to you in September! Sign-up now at: www.fullerdemocracy.com In the meanwhile, here are a few of

With the census coming up this weekend, a few issues have been brought to my attention. The first is the partial privatization of the census; the second is the issue of religion and the infrastructure repercussions of what you tick

It’s now a month since we went to the polls and I’d like to thank all 772 people who gave me their first preferences on February 26th, as well as the many more who gave me a 2nd or 3rd preference. Your

Occasionally, I am asked what my stance is on the Irish language. As most people know I was born in Canada and I came to Ireland as an adult. Therefore, I never learned Irish in school, and my current stock

I attended the Right2Change meeting at Northern Cross in September of last year and I believe that Right2Change is a progressive platform – in fact I personally agree with about 90% of what it advocates. However, as the main aspect of my campaign is to

On Tuesday, the 16th of February, I was interviewed on the Late Debate on RTÉ Radio 1 alongside Jim O’Callaghan of Fianna Fáil, Naoise O’Muirí of Fine Gael and Eamon Ryan of the Green Party Dublin. We discussed the latest poll results

Ifedinma, Tony, Ake and myself were out canvassing again last Saturday – this time in Donabate. With about 3000 doors knocked we still have a long way to go, but it is really heartening to hear so many people agreeing with

A core part of my platform is introducing direct digital democracy (see here and here. For this reason, I can only give information on what I will do in the event that we do not hold a poll on the issue in Fingal

Although the State is technically responsible for education, in that there is a Ministry that nominally oversees it and the State provides a large chunk of educational funding, the entire Irish school system lacks central coordination. That means that schools

Once again, because I am committed to digital democracy I cannot make pre-election commitments that may conflict with implementing participatory voting (even if they are unlikely to). Nonetheless, while I cannot put my signature to anything, I make an effort

I have signed the Repeal the 8th Pledge. This pledge only commits TDs to hold a referendum on repealing the 8th Amendment and therefore doesn’t conflict with my commitment to digital democracy. My personal views will not play much of a role

I recently received an e-mail from Arthritis Ireland asking me to become an ‘Arthritis Champion’ and commit to appointing 6 consultant rheumatologists, 29 clinical nurse specialists, 12 advanced nurse practitioners, 21 physiotherapists and 32 occupational therapists within 100 days of

As always, I’ll preface these remarks by noting that with digital, participatory democracy, my constituents will always have a binding say in my voting behavior. This means that I cannot commit to policy pledges, as everything I do is ultimately

I unequivocally condemn the charges being laid against the Jobstown protesters in regards to the ‘false imprisonment’ of Joan Burton during a protest against water charges last year. Investigating and prosecuting crime is, of course, important, but it cannot be

Yes, we all know the infamous Irish road and the profound effects that the fixing thereof can have on one’s political career. Indeed, road-fixing has become symbolic of nepotistic parish pump politics. If a politician looking for a vote knocks

This is the second part of my series on Irish political parties and how my views coincide with or differ from theirs. If you’ve read my webpage, you might be thinking: So, Roz, you want direct democracy and Direct Democracy

I was happy to be able to take part in the Dunnes Store protest in Dublin on June 6th, because it highlights one of the biggest employment issues today: job precarity. Job precarity exists when you are working – you

I was able to catch up with the great guys from Black History Month Ireland at the Africa Day Awards this year. BHMI is an initiative that highlights the contributions of African-Irish people to their communities and I am looking

Roslyn’s article on the constitutional convention and why it is necessary to implement all of its recommendations appeared in The Journal on March 19th. From the Article: A referendum process that enjoins public discussion on all of the Convention’s recommendations

One of the biggest reasons I became dissatisfied with party politics is that parties have a tendency to criticize everything that their opposition does just for the sake of opposition. As an Independent, I aim to work more constructively in the interests

1. Selling the Government Shares in Aer Lingus is Not the Most Profitable Option Aer Lingus is not a loss-making company. It is a profit-generating company to the tune of 40-70 million Euro annually. The Government currently owns 25.1% of

Metro Éireann did a full-page interview with Roslyn on her candidacy in the upcoming general election. You can read the full story in the January 15th to 30th issue of Metro Éireann.