GE2020: Ask the Louth candidate: John McGahon

The Dundalk Democrat put six questions to all 15 candidates standing in the Louth constituency for General Election 2020.

Two specific questions in each of the three categories, crime, healthcare and climate change were put to the candidates.

Seven out of the 15 candidates responded. Over the next seven articles we share their responses.

The questions were as follows and the responses from Fine Gael's John McGahon are below:

Crime

• What resources would you provide for people in Louth to keep them from drifting into criminality?
• Do you favour decriminalisation of drugs as part of a range of measures to combat addiction? 

Environment

• Would you support the idea of making school buses mandatory for all school goers who do not cycle of walk to school - as a means of combating climate change, promote healthy lifestyles and cutting down on rush hour traffic?
• What public transport measures would you implement in Louth to combat climate change? - would it include free public transport for all? What investment would you make towards electric buses and when would it happen?

Healthcare

• Would you end the use of agency healthcare workers, including nurses? Timeline?
• What facilities would you make available in Louth to help fight mental illness and help promote good mental health?

John McGahon's responses:

Crime

Q1: I would focus my efforts on increasing investment in youth-clubs and social hangouts for young teens. We need to give them a place to go other than street corners for them to hang out with their mates.

Q2: Yes, but only small amounts. We need to help our young people to stop using drugs and we need to lock up the people who are selling drugs to children.

Environment

Q1: I would support the promotion of every child using a bus service, but I would not support making anything mandatory overnight.

People must be given time to make practical adjustments over a number of years. An essential start is to ensure that an actual seat is available for every child, on every route.

Q2: We are already replacing diesel busses with new hybrids and electric. This will continue with Fine Gael in government.

I would support free travel on public transport at off peak times to ensure amble seats are available for working people who are forced to travel at certain times.

Healthcare

Q1: No. Agency workers are and always will be necessary for any business or provider to offer a base level of service. There will always be reasons why a hospital might be down some staff or may not be able to fill a post.

In these cases it is a choice between no service, or recruit a temporary agency worker. I would certainly support ending the use of agency workers for long periods of let's say more than six months.

Q2: More and more low level intervention services must be provided. We must put in place services that prevent people from getting acutely ill instead of reactive measures when people get very ill or perhaps its too late.

Early intervention and preventative measures in schools and in the community is the answer.