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Summary of ideas submitted in the Other category…

• A ‘Spend for Ireland’ campaign including days/weekends calling on Irish people to spend to keep the country going and keep employment.
• A €40 tax on all mobile phones.
• A 1 cent tax on every text message.
• A 2 cent tax on all text messages.
• A bilateral agreement between Ireland and Iraq whereby we get favourable loan terms to borrow some of their surplus cash, cheap oil and access to their domestic market. Iraq gives work to Irish builders thus accelerating their reconstruction and access to Western contacts/knowledge.
• A bond issuance to the Irish people, a sort of “Patriotic” “war-on-recession” bond if you wish. The maturity could be anything from two to five years. Subscription should be compulsory, and would be apportioned and levied in the same way as PAYE, thereby possibly partially replacing the need for increased income tax. The rate of the bond would be variable, so that future rate fluctuations would not affect its financial value, and the subscriber would thereby be protected to an extent.
• A bridge to the UK would open up Ireland for tourism like never before and gives us direct road access to a market of 60 million people.
• A card with personal pin number enabling a person on the dole to opt off for a week or longer if finding short-term employment and allow the week or weeks at the end of their pay-related entitlements.
• A considerable amount of oil and gas has been found off the south and west coast of Ireland. The companies that have found it have too little resources in a time of loan scarcity to bring it ashore soon. I suggest the Government should negotiate deals with them to bring it ashore quickly with the Government providing the funds.
• A dedicated city area for the creative industries.
• A ‘Dublin River Way’ be developed starting at the Tolka Valley through Ashtown, Abbottstown along the canal, through the Phoenix Park and then on through the River Liffey Valley.
• A forum of older people brought together to brainstorm and use their skills to economise could be put to greater use. Many of these people have been through tough times before.
• A government/private partnership with the view to implementing a fibre-optic network to all homes in all metropolitan areas in Ireland so as to encourage the development and testing of new SMART technology.
• A lot of newly built private housing estates are sitting vacant and unsold. Perhaps these could be used as care centres for patients. The Government should look at existing buildings and use the resources for staffing.
• A national SME venture fund or bond should be set up to encourage Irish investors to invest centrally in SMEs with the usual tax credits that were once associated with property.
• A new political party built on strong values of honesty and integrity.
• A new supplementary state pension scheme that would be voluntary, open to everyone and paid as a payroll deduction, and the employer would also make a contribution.
• A number of oil companies are not drilling exploration wells in the timeframe as specified in the terms of their licences. The Government should be putting pressure on companies with such licences to use them or loose them.
• A permanent system should be put in place for putting forward ideas on how the Public Service can work more efficiently
• A scheme that any new limited company that registers (CRO number) receives a 3G modem with a certain amount of prepaid MB.
• A scheme to incentivise the older generation to use their capital to reduce the debt of a younger family member.
• A scheme whereby public sector workers would have the option to pull out of the pension for a few years.
• A small charge, say €3-€5, should be introduced for medical card holders for doctors’ visits and prescribed medicine.
• A small monthly sample of corporate activity at various levels would provide the Government with accurate information which in time will be borne out by the returns.
• A state run website whereby people can swap their houses, on the lines of myhome.ie but merely to swap, so if you have a three-bed house in Dundrum but want to move to a bigger house in the area you would list your house, and then if someone in the area wanted to downsize they could potentially swap with you.
• A structure where assets could be sold into a toxic bank for say, 5-40% of their book value depending on degree of impairment (which would be an alternative, specific form of recapitalisation). The remaining balance (40-80%) would be crystallised as a loss and amortised against the bank’s profit over e.g. a three to seven-year period, giving the banks a “clean slate” without any more large-scale unseen negative shocks. This should in theory revitalise the new clean banks and restore a degree of confidence (improved ratings, CDS spreads, rejuvenated share price etc).
• A system should be put in place to reward those who create employment. After all it is the employer who collects and submits the employee’s taxes on behalf of the Government.
• A system to enable countries to write off toxic debt/bad debt. Such a system would use a formula to determine the amount of money each government could write off as “bad debt”. But before countries would be allowed to “write off” a permitted portion of bad debt, the Government would need to ensure that new regulations re bank lending are put in place.
• A tax incentive, tax credit or tax-free allowance to anyone who creates a new job for someone on the live register.
• A tax on currency exchange transaction.
• A test period of four draws in the National Lottery might be set aside where the amount of numbers (currently 45) from which the draw is made would be reduced to the original 31 or 32.
• A tiered system where the core competency of a retail bank is the security of the deposits of the average Joe, strict regulation of the type and quantity of assets a retail bank could invest in match a company’s income with their expenditure and hence a retail bank’s revenue should be derived from the spread between loans and deposits. New regulation should ensure a cap on expenditure on asset backed/pass through securities. The second tier would be a group of investment banks that only individuals or companies with high levels of income would be allowed invest in.
• A united 32 county socialist republic makes fiscal sense.
• A Voluntary Income Tax Savings Scheme (VITSS) whereby taxpayers may volunteer to overpay tax and then have it, along with a coupon, returned after three, five or seven years.
• A voluntary scheme where people through their employer/pension provider place a stake equivalent to one hour of their salary each month with a chance to win a lottery prize of a zero tax liability for the next 10 years.