Summary of ideas submitted in the Other category…

• Institute a 90% tax on bonuses paid to executives and senior management in businesses receiving a government bailout, where the business must pay a 90% tax on the bonus paid as well as the employee receiving it.
• International staff or foreigners can fill in positions that Ireland is currently lacking or taking time to build up.
• Introduce a centralised purchasing system for the HSE.
• Introduce a corporation tax credit of €x per person fully employed within the state.
• Introduce a fast-track immigration service that is to be paid for by people who want to expedite the process.
• Introduce a grant or tax relief scheme to support the short-term unemployed to get back in the game.
• Introduce a lower rate of capital gains tax on principal private residences.
• Introduce a National Savings Fund.
• Introduce a property tax in which the better the BER (Building Energy Rating) of the house, the lower the tax.
• Introduce a third tax band.
• Introduce a voluntary redundancy scheme for public sector.
• Introduce a wealth tax of 10% on wills/administrations over €1 million - or €0.3 billion per year.
• Introduce an optional taxation where people can opt to pay up to 5% extra in tax this year. In return the tax payer will receive a 1% discount on their tax bill for the following six years.
• Introduce carpooling in rural areas. Communal noticeboard to be used to organise this.
• Introduce legislation to end tax exile status.
• Introduce the option for home owners on fixed mortgages to change to variable rates with no/minimal penalty
• Introduce water charges, i.e. ‘polluter pays’ principle.
• Introduction of early retirement to over 55s in the public service.
• Invest in the country’s infrastructure wholeheartedly and improve our competitive advantage as a nation. The tax take (PAYE/PRSI) from getting thousands of people back to work will increase and similarly these many thousands of workers will cease claiming the dole (another major cost at present).
• Invite as many as possible of ESB staff to work 50% of time for 50% of current salary. For every staff member who opts for 1/2 time scheme, offer job to new person at 50% of level of “opposite number”.
• Invite the public to vote for the ideas submitted - if nothing else it might give the politicians a handy barometer as to their (the ideas’) popularity and potential acceptability.
• Ireland could be the leaders of eco-technology in the world. We ought to manage our own marine resources more effectively and efficiently to benefit our own people first while looking out for the interests of our European neighbours.
• Ireland is blessed with some of the best fishing grounds in the world and now a new frontier for oil and gas exploration. We must get these precious resources working for the good of Ireland instead of being handed over on the cheap to foreign multinationals/influences.
• Ireland needs to embrace the current technologies that exist in the area of green power generation, to make us an ideal location for new investment.
• Ireland should develop its own competency which cannot be outsourced. Ultimately, when everyone is done with the working day worldwide, they then seek leisure and the arts. Ireland should keep its economic diversity, but should focus on a national core competency. In general this competency should be in the area of “the arts”.
• Ireland should make a bid to host Euro 2016.
• Ireland should spend some of its foreign aid money “at home…” to create a team/organisation/location which stockpiles tents, blankets, food, water, fuel, transport equipment, medicine etc in Ireland. This stockpile to be ready to deploy in hours.
• Ireland to many people means U2 and Riverdance, Seamus Heaney and Anne Enright.
• Irish entrepreneurs pitch their ideas through the Internet to millions of potential small-scale investors who can pick up a stake in the company through some form of PayPal-esque payment system.
• Irish media should consider having a Good News Day - 24 hours where bad news is not reported on any of your programmes and a genuine effort by all of your reporters to seek out good news and good people.
• Issue Irish government bonds on which the coupon is subject to Deposit Interest Retention Tax in the hands of Irish-resident individuals rather than income tax at the investor’s highest rate.
• It is unfair for the taxpayer to pay twice for information from the Government. Examples include: 1. Paying for information from the CSO. 2. Paying for digital maps from the Ordnance Survey. In America information like this is free to the tax-paying public.
• It is unnecessary to light up dual carriageways/motorways, as car lights generate enough light to see perfectly well. Our government/ local governments could save millions in a short period by removing this lighting. Even if it was drastically reduced it would make a big cut in the lighting budget.
• It would be helpful if people understood the difference between “inflation”, “deflation” and price increases and decreases. This is the reason we are uncompetitive. We need to specifically target regaining our competitiveness and pay attention to the data which tell us whether or not we are doing so.
• It would help companies greatly if R&D claims in cash back on the R&D tax credit could be done (1) retrospectively (2) prior to September 2010. Currently no company can claim any cash back now, even though the tax credit built up might be huge.