Catherine Martin - Village Magazine

March 2016 2 7

What's your geographical and professional

background?

IamoriginallyfromCarrickmacross,CoMonaghan,but

movedtoDublinover20yearsago.Ihaveworkedasan

EnglishandMusicteacherinStTiernan’sCommunity

SchoolinDundrumforthepast16years.

How long have you been in the Greens and how did you

ﬁrst get involved?

MyhusbandandIjoinedtheGreenPartyshortlyafter

the birth of our rst child, Turlough, in 2007. I got

involvedforthesakeofhisfutureandthefutureofallof

ourchildren.Theywere,tome,theonlypartylookingto

thelong-term.

Are you on the practical or radical wing?

Idon’tthinkthetwoaremutuallyexclusive.Ibelievein

practical,long-termsustainablesolutions,butIalso

thinkwereallyhavetochangethewaywethinkanddo

politicsbeforewecanimplementthesolutions.

What motivates you?

Lookingatthingsinaninnovativeway,seekingsolu-

tions,andmychildrenofcourse!

What is your political priority?

Toprovideavoiceforrealequalityofaccesstoquality

educationforall.

How would you reform education?

Wedon’tjustneedmoreinvestmentineducationwe

needinnovationandcreativityandamoreuser-friendly

systemforall.Weneedtoformallyincorporatewellbe-

ingintothecurriculumsothatthewayweteachour

childrenismoreindividualisedforeachstudent.Teach-

ersareunder-resourcedandover-stretchedandthat

needstochangetoo.

What instrument do you play?

IsingandIalsoplaythepiano.

How would you get more women into politics?

Showthemitispossibletoeffectchangeandreform

systems,andmakeitpossibletohavequalityfamily

time.

How comfortable are you debating the ﬁscal space?

It’sanothercomplexlabelforsomethingreasonably

straightforward.Tothedetrimentofotherissues,itdom-

inatedtherstweekorsoofashortgeneralelection

campaign.

What simple changes could best be made to health

policy?

Thesimplestandmosteffectivechangewouldbetointe-

grate effective mental-healthcare services into

mainstreamhealthandeducationpolicies.

What is your environmental priority?

Wehavetostrivetomeetour2030emissionsreductions

targets.Ifwedon'titwillcostusalotofmoney-nobody

isspellingthisout.Thepreviousgovernmentwould

soonerincurnesthancomeupwithsolutions

What are the biggest local issues in your

constituency?

Equalaccesstoqualityeducationandchildcarearehuge

issuesforfamiliesandpeoplearegenuinelystressed,

worriedandlosingsleepovertheseissues.Providing

effective crime-prevention is also a big concern for

many.

What is your political philosophy?

Everythingisinterconnected.Weneedtobearthisin

mindwhentacklingproblemsandprovidingsolutions.

Catherine Martin

Michael Smith interviewed

Catherine Martin, the Green Party's

deputy leader and newest TD

I think that’s the

Government’s

duty to the next

generation: to

ensure equality

of opportunity