People Before Profit Prison Policies

SUMMARY

People Before Profit calls for:

1. A fundamental change in the perception of inmates as citizens capable of rehabilitation, rather than as dangerous and irredeemable.
2. Rehabilitation rather than retribution to become the official impulse.
3. A restorative-justice programme, in which offenders meet their victims as part of facing up to their crimes and rehabilitating.
4. Deprived city areas with high numbers of offenders to receive greater social investment.
5. A move towards Open prisons.
6. An increase in Temporary Releases.
7. More drug treatment centers inside and outside prison.

Click here to read our full Prison Policy

People Before Profit Arts Policy

1. Increase state funding of the Arts to the European average of 0.6%
2. A new deal programme for artists to deliver new jobs in the public sector.
3. A new fund to promote access to arts participation for children and adults in disadvantaged areas.

Click here to read our full Arts Policy

People Before Profit Land and Food Use Policy

SUMMARY

1. Greater support for smaller farmers who produce for the home market.
2. Encourage a shift to more environmentally friendly forms of farming.
3. Oppose the privatisation of our forests.
4. Establish a proper healthy school meals programme
5. Develop a proper meals-on-wheels strategy for the elderly, based on local community co-ops.
6. Encourage the development of allotments in urban areas.
7. Ban vending machines selling sugary drinks in schools.

Click here to read our full Land and Food Use Policy

TTIP Policy and Briefing Notes

SUMMARY

People Before Profit calls for

• the Irish government to withdraw from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) negotiations now;
• the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and EU-Singapore treaties to be opposed in the European Council, the European Parliament and both Houses of the Oireachtas.

People Before Profit will also:

• promote the declaration of TTIP-free zones by local councils;
• work to raise awareness of the dangers of these treaties and to explicitly expose the connections between them and the enforced privatisation of public services, especially with respect to water, health, housing, energy and education.

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People Before Profit War & Conflict Policy

1. People Before Profit is an anti-imperialist party.
2. Imperialism is a world economic and political structure – not just a series of individual acts of colonisation.
3. Economically its main feature is the domination of the world by giant multinational corporations who both work with one another and compete with one another.
4. Politically this leads to the domination of the world by rival great powers such as the US, the EU, Russia and China – each of which tries to strengthen and enlarge its sphere of influence through sub- imperial powers such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.
5. This leads to a multitude of imperialist, inter-imperialist and anti-imperialist conflicts, wars, interventions and complex situations each of which requires specific analysis.
6. In general terms: People Before Profit opposes all imperialist wars, conquests, interventions and occupations – especially those in which our government is involved and implicated (eg by the US use of Shannon). We support the right of nations to self-determination.
7. We should be particularly wary of claimed ‘humanitarian interventions’. The removal of dictators and vicious regimes (such as Gaddafi, Assad, Mubarak etc) is the task of the people of those countries not Western armed forces which only make matters worse.
8. We are opposed to Western and Russian military intervention in the conflict in Syria.
9. We support the Palestinian struggle for liberation against Zionist occupation and oppression and back the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel.
10. We should defend Irish neutrality; oppose NATO and the military use of Shannon, and all Irish participation in the international arms trade.

People Before Profit Environmental Policy

1. In light of the overwhelming scientific evidence for human induced climate change, People Before Profit advocates a radical series of measures to dramatically reduce Ireland’s Co2 emissions.
2. These will include a public transport revolution to cut car usage and provide every community both urban and rural with a cheap and efficient mode of public transit appropriate for the area.
3. We want the latest energy efficient standards in new buildings and a national programme to retro fit housing and public buildings.
4. All reserves of energy, renewable or fossil fuel should be retained in public ownership and any development should be in the public interest and developed only to ensure that Ireland moves to a low carbon society as soon as possible.
5. The country’s physical heritage, its mountains, countryside, lakes rivers and seashore, should be safeguarded from privatisation and remain accessible to the public.
6. We advocate programmes of re-afforestation with the goal of protecting and enhancing the land’s biodiversity for this and future generations.

Click here to read our full Environmental Policy

People Before Profit Childcare Policy

SUMMARY

1. Childcare should be provided as a universal right. It should be funded through a universally applied progressive taxation system.
2. In the immediate term, parents should receive a state subsidy for childcare so they only pay a fraction of the cost and fees. As in Denmark parents should pay at most 30% of running costs but services should be free to many low-income families.
3. Expand the learner Fund to provide support to allow childcare workers to professionalize to progress to FETAC levels 7 and 8. And increase pay levels for these workers.
4. There needs to be an increase in the regulation of all child-minders and after school services
5. Paid leave which includes maternity leave, should be structured in such a way that a parent is enabled to remain at home for at least a child’s first year.
6. Paid paternity leave should be extended and balanced with maternity leave.

Click here to read our full Policy on Childcare

People Before Profit LGBT Policy

SUMMARY

People Before Profit campaigns for full equality for LBGT people. We want:

1. An end to the ban on gay or bisexual men donating blood.
2. The abolition of section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act which allows educational and medical institutions run by religious bodies to discriminate against those who do not conform to the religious ethos
3. Hate crime legislation to deal with homophobic and transphobic attacks and proper recording of data on such attacks.
4. Compulsory, age-appropriate sex education which deals with issues around gender, sexuality, consent and contraception

Click here to read our full LGBT Policy

People Before Profit Racism and Immigration Policy

SUMMARY

1. People Before Profit declares itself completely opposed to racism in all its forms, including Islamophobia, anti-semitism, and anti-Traveller racism. In opposition to racism we regard the ordinary people of every nation, ethnic group and creed, as our sisters and brothers.
2. All the mainstream political parties in Ireland and across Europe view immigration as a ‘problem’ to be dealt with more or less harshly. People Before Profit rejects this view. Without migration human development would have been impossible.

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People Before Profit Natural Resources Policy

SUMMARY

1. Take all oil and gas resources into public ownership. People Before Profit will nullify all existing agreements with oil companies and place a moratorium on all licensing rounds until the new model of state management has been introduced.
2. Introduce a new model of hydrocarbon management. This will be premised upon (a) public ownership of resources, (b) stronger state participation through production sharing and service contracts, and a national oil company, and (c) higher rates of financial returns through increased rates of corporate tax and royalties.
3. Develop and fund an integrated industrial development strategy comprising upstream and downstream activities. Public ownership of our natural resources will become the cornerstone of a new development strategy that will replace a reliance on foreign multi-nationals.
4. Use funds and infrastructure from oil and gas activities to diversify Ireland’s energy supply. People Before Profit favours developing and moving towards more sustainable forms of energy production which would have additional industrial, economic, social, and environmental benefits. *
5. People Before Profit will design and implement a new system of consultation and planning for hydrocarbon activities based on the active engagement of all stakeholders. All exploration, production, and processing activities will be subjected to transparent, fair, and participative permissions processes involving community participation in decision making. Hydrocarbon activities will only be authorised when there is community consent.

Click here to read our full Natural Resources Policy