Summary of ideas submitted in the Agriculture and Food category…

• Create more sculptures and art in Dublin city to bring in more tourists by using unemployed artists and tradesmen.
• The culture change dramatically from one of honesty and sharing and welcoming, to one of greed and gluttony. Let’s get back to the old values. Let’s instill these values from the top down (including government), and let’s revive the old Ireland.
• Local communities start a series of monthly town hall meetings. These meetings would use best practice facilitation techniques such as Open Source to encourage participation, genuine dialogue.
• Make it mandatory to Irish radio and TV to meet a quota of Irish-produced music, drama
• We should ensure that we get the people with the appropriate education and knowledge into the decision makers, and the decision makers should take expert advice.
• Bring back the cafe bar idea.
• Promote reading by giving children the opportunity to speak to authors in person. It is essential that this is continued during the recession as we need to make sure that children keep reading and going to libraries.
• Bring in cafe bars where we can meet and chat without spending all our dole on drink.
• There should be a big increase in cost of alcohol. Off-licences should be limited.
• Employ a minister for thinking.
• Irish are best at writing, music, healing, psychics, dancing, cooking, etc. Instead of paying multinationals to temporarily set up a manufacturing plant here (until the grants run out) we can now divert the energy/money into the items listed above. Supporting our own unique talents which are highly valued in other countries will also attract tourists and others to study with us and learn our culture.
• Many adults now have time to learn the Irish language. This would be a good income stream for B&Bs in rural gaeltacht areas and also offer employment opportunities for unqualified/qualified teachers.
• Introduce a culture of accepting responsibility, particularly to include our politicians, public representatives, captains of industry, top management in all financial institutions, state regulators and senior management in all public, semi-public and private companies.
• We need to embrace science. Astronomy Ireland began a campaign to generate a science culture for Ireland as astronomy is the most fascinating science to the general public. Already the organisation is, relative to population, the biggest in the world.
• Ballyconnell House with an estate of approx. 100 acres located near the parish of Cloughaneely in Donegal has fallen into disrepair; employ local unemployed with an increased dole benefit to renovate and manage the estate.
• Introduce an incentive for landlords to rent premises that have been vacant for a long time to craft workers at a low rent for a specific period of time.
• Create an opportunity where unsold seats, be they theatre, cinema or sporting events, can be offered to less well off individuals and community groups free of charge. A ‘Bums on Seats’ website and lo-call phone service would be available to the less well off to have their name listed for a free place at an event should it become available. Local authorities, social welfare offices and community groups can put names forward.
• We have lost as a nation a sense of national identity; start using Irish in our conversations, learn or re-learn the Irish songs we learned at school and at Irish college, make classes in Irish dancing and set dancing available throughout the country and arrange for displays of Irish dancing and music in all the main centres on a regular basis.
• If someone wants to do a small project to beautify or in some way enhance his town, he could seek funding locally for it. It would help people focus on respecting, contributing to, and taking pride in, their own environment.
• Develop an uplifting story for the Irish; retell the diaspora triumphs, the luck and the exuberance of the Irish across the world.
• With the implementation of a system whereby Irish museums charge a nominal fee. The National Museum of Ireland could generate huge revenue, provide more staff and avoid wage cuts. (Some very similar ideas)
• During the Great Depression, the US government funded the Federal Writers Project; a similar scheme in Ireland could include oral recordings of generations of people whose experiences in a country much changed since their youth would be of value to Irish people in the future. The government could put unemployed arts graduates or those laid off by the media sector to work compiling official literature to mark the occasion.
• Incentivise philanthropy via corporate sponsorship. By rewarding companies with tax incentives that introduce a corporate social responsibility of match funding donations from employees to charities/cultural organizations/
• A system whereby arts practitioners could build up credits through jobs worked throughout the year, some financial remuneration is received. This would get people out of the dole offices, cut back on red tape, and encourage people to focus more on their artistic careers.
• In order to maximise impact in economically challenging time, funding for Irish language projects could be measured in terms of the number of people, both users and learners they impact.
• More training for the arts, and more nationwide involvement in them through public outdoor sculpture contests and exhibits, painting classes, free days at all galleries nationwide, adult education / art appreciation classes
• Develop a website whereby artists sell work and a percentage goes to funding new ideas.
• Theatres, festivals and schools should give space in their programmes to allow companies the chance of a start up and the right to earn a little money. They must be flexible enough to accept the imperfect and contingent nature of the work.
• Give the language its voice on a daily basis in packaging, branding, promotional material, coded strategies and instructions to our nation representing athletes, our rugby and football teams, our anthems, our politicians and our administrations. By putting an Ghaeilge to the fore and as a protocol, the country engenders a spirit, a collaboration, a sense of team-work.
• 10% of all advertising revenue for TV channels should be directed towards the development of home produced TV programmes and films.
• Do not cancel the Man in the Liffey building project. This striking piece of sculpture will generate millions every year in cash for the local economy in Dublin.
• Cultural policy is very important in terms of the development of inner city areas across Ireland. The creation of cultural clusters which broadly includes the cultural activities in an area (art organisations, colleges, publishers, printers, craft, art galleries/retailers etc).
• Have unified marketing for Irish products to encourage home consumption. A single internet site might be a good start.