Originally from Kilcock, County Kildare, Ó Coistín lives in Newcastle, County Dublin. He works as a communications executive for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, having previously worked for EU institutions in Luxembourg. He studied History and Politics at UL.

I checked what the other candidates had to say about the exemption from studying Irish policy. No candidate had mentioned it. The Department of Education are taking the piss and too many exemptions are being given. The Department refuses to explain why students cannot get an exemption from studying English. The reason is because it is unconstitutional, but they don't want to admit it. Students are getting exemptions from studying Irish but they can still study other languages. That means that they don't have a learning difficulty. This farce needs to called out and exemptions from studying Irish have to stop. It's ruining the education system and it's a joke. There are other issues that I have strong opinions on such as the need for better public transport, more schools in the suburbs of Dublin and the need for an Irish air force, but the fact that no candidate is talking about the farce and hypocrisy about exemptions in school is what made me run.

Better planning for society. This covers enough houses for a growing population, proper public transport so that our roads and streets are not jammed and people don't waste their days stuck in traffic, and new schools for all the children in the country. All of these problems are due to a lack of planning and being ahead of the growing population. Dublin is wealthy and expensive, but we don't have the infrastructure that matches the amount of wealth that is in Ireland. We should have better services. The main problem is a lack of new houses but houses alone are not enough. We need the services and infrastructure that people use every day to be built along with the houses.

To call for the state to be ambitious about the Irish language and not to be neutral about the Irish language. Ireland is the only country in the world where Irish is recognised, so the Irish government should do everything it can to use Irish in all aspects of state affairs. By being ambitious for the Irish language, it means being ambitious for the Irish people and the Irish economy. The people, language and the economy are all intertwined.