James Heffernan:

See the statement provided by the Labour Party on behalf of all its candidates.

Dan Neville:

See the statement provided by Fine Gael on behalf of all its candidates.

Patrick O’Donovan:

See the statement provided by Fine Gael on behalf of all its candidates.

William O’Donnell:

See the statement provided by Fine Gael on behalf of all its candidates.

Stephen Wall:

1.      Will you work to reform the education system so that all children in your constituency can access publicly-funded schools which have no religious ethos?

I believe every parent should have the option of sending their child to a school with no religious ethos, and if elected I will work to achieve this.

2.      Would you support a referendum to remove religious references from the Constitution?

The Green Party has called for a People’s Assembly to draft a new constitution. I would hope and expect the result of this to be a fully secular constitution. In the absence of a brand new constitution, I would support the suggested referendum

3.      Do you believe that blasphemy should be a criminal offence?

No.

4.      Would you support legislation to prevent hospitals from having a religious ethos?

I would like to see ultimately all the hospitals having a secular ethos, whether this is through legislation or another process would have to be examined.

5.      If elected, would you vote to ensure that religious bodies are treated the same as other organisations under equality and employment legislation?

Yes. As a gay man I am acutely aware of the dangers of exceptionalising the adoption of equal rights for cetain groups.

6.      Do you believe that religions should have to pay their fair share of tax on income that does not come from charitable activities?

Yes.

7.      If you wish to provide a brief general statements of your views on the future development of secularisation in Ireland, or to highlight any previous comments you have made on related issues, please do so.

I am in fact one of the 186,318 people who stated No Religion in 2006. I am fully committed to the complete separation of church and state and have joined the Green Party in part because of it’s purely evidence based approach to policy making.

I see a secular future as the best future for the Irish administrative system. Of course a system like this allows full freedom of worship to everybody, but the state will make no laws that discriminate against those who don’t subscribe to the religious thinking behind the laws.

In addition, see the statement provided by the Green Party on behalf of all its candidates.

No Response Received From:

Niall Collins

John Dillon

Seamus Sherlock

Candidates Not Contacted:

Patrick O’Doherty

Con Cremin

Fine Gael statement

Green Party statement

Labour Party Statement