Knowledge is power: All the right questions for your politician [Downloadable]

With the general election just around the corner, politicians and canvassers will be pounding the streets between now and 8th of February to persuade members of the public to pledge to give them their No.1 on the ballot paper. You can be guaranteed that over the coming days, a local politician, or an enthusiastic canvasser eager to share the attributes of the individual they’re representing, will call to your home.

For weeks you’ve had a list of carefully formulated questions in your head. Yet as you open the door to greet your local TD, councillor, potential political newcomer or canvasser, those questions are likely to evaporate.

So we've created a handy downloadable list of questions on some of the biggest global issues of our time:

• Climate change
• Unsustainable consumerism
• Gender inequality and the burden of the care economy, which is mostly carried by women and girls
• The global corporate tax system which hits the poor the hardest

You can download the list and store it on your phone – or print off a hard copy and pop it up on the wall next to your front door. That way, when a politician or canvasser calls round, you have all the questions you need at your fingertips.

Questions for election candidates - for people and planet

Climate change

1. How are you going to tackle the climate crisis, including ensuring we reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% every year?
2. And how are you going to support people in poorer countries who are already feeling its devastating effects?

Sustainability

1. How will you work to make Ireland more sustainable, including by developing the circular economy which eliminates waste and helps protect our most precious resources?

Gender inequality and the care economy

1. What are your plans to tackle gender inequality?
2. And how do you plan to better value and invest in unpaid care work? Including tackling the disproportionate impact it has on women?

The global corporate tax system

1. Will you help overhaul the global corporate tax system which allows large multinational companies to avoid paying their fair share of tax and deprives countries, especially the world's poorest, of vital revenue?