In the short to medium term, the council has money to buy social and affordable homes, they need to be pushed harder to spend this money. In the longer term I would call for a levy to be placed on all foreign investors in our housing market, to make the market less competitive for citizens and city councils to buy family homes. One of the main reasons the council are slow to purchase new dwellings is the lack of value for money in todays market.

I would propose to overhaul the regulatory body for rented accommodation and increase its funding on the basis that annual assessment of all rented properties is mandatory. I would encourage large fines or disqualification from the market for landlords not maintaining the required standards. I would also like to see the regulatory body have the power to remove tenants found to be damaging properties or deteriorating the living quality of an accommodation far beyond what can be considered general "wear and tear" as i believe any regulation needs to be fair and balanced in order to have the best outcomes for the public. 

Its obvious we need more litter bins and recycle facilities in the city, the dirtiest areas tend to be the ones with least bins and recycle facilties. The councils poo bag iniative has been helpful but we need to upscale this and provide more dog parks, while also taking more action on stray dogs, that walk our neighbourhoods leaving dog poo behind. 

One of the main obstacles which slows down the redistribution of vacant social houses is the inefficiency of the tender process. The process needs to be upgraded so only contractors that actually have the necessary personnel and equipment to complete the job should be successful. Failing this I would encourage the council to purchase such machinery as cranes and cherry pickers, which could then be leased to contractors who tender successfully. This would also benefit the many hundreds of tenants waiting for repairs and maintenance work, as there are currently over 100 tenants awaiting roof repairs and these tenders are been awarded to contractors who cannot attain the necessary machinery.

In relation to private vacancies and dereliction, I feel the council should identify and offer grants and assistance in restoring properties and placing them back on the market. This should be coupled with penalties and fines, where no work has been done on such properties within a set timeframe, from the date of any offer of assistance.

We need a much stronger police presence in the city, particularly in areas like Abbey Street, near the Luas stops, where loitering and anti-social behaviour are rife. 

Public transport works efficiently in many other cities across the world, so there is no reason it should not here. Instead of outsourcing every public entity that fails or drops below par, we should look at the personnel, policy and general business practices of any such state funded entities or service providers for solutions. 

Firstly I would encourage better policing of the roads regarding double parking, driving in cycle lanes and dangerous U-turns, which all put cyclist in grave danger. Get tougher on people driving without insurance, as it is becoming increasingly more common. Maybe their should also be a campaign to help prevent motorist from moving into the cycle lane just prior to turning. 

Firstly I feel it is important to state that these are not issues, which fall under the remit of a city councillor and that, the media have already played a role in creating much of the hysteria around these issues, so we should maybe look at root cause rather than the symptoms.

The Irish people are not far right and I don't believe the issue for the vast majority of people is immigration. It's asylum, an abysmal asylum policy and a government actively encouraging exploitation of its failures.

I believe the issue has been falsely framed as immigration to sow division. I feel there are many others, who have been fooled into supporting the government's false argument and are perpetuating not only division but the terrible circumstances asylum seekers find themselves in as our government cannot facilitate or control the mess they have created. 

I'd also like to point out that Ireland is a very tolerant country, which voted heavily in favour of marriage equality. However we are a predominantly Catholic country, which values our Christian traditions and morality, generally taught in schools. Maybe the public are acting in defence of this rather than resisting or pushing back the LGBTQ movement.

I genuinely believe that, the framing and posturing on these issues is far from accurate and further from helpful.