Summary of ideas submitted in the Other category…

• Property developments that have begun, but for which the developers are unable to service the loans, could be quickly foreclosed, and bought by the Government at a greatly reduced rate.
• Provide a cash incentive, say €2,500, to owners of cars older than 10 years to scrap their vehicles in return for purchasing a new or nearly new car.
• Provide a facility for people who are entitled to children’s allowance but not in real need of it and willing to forego it or some of it.
• Public buy bonds in denominations of €50. Bonds traded through An Post similar to prize bonds and arranged through NTMA. Allows people to save while helping the country.
• Public private partnerships - make them more local and smaller in nature and tied to public services, the local school, built with a local public-private partnership, the local health centre, built with a public-private partnership, but with the added bonus of getting money from locals, offering a normal profit on return (say 4% per annum, or LIBOR), and having the tangible entities in the locality as a result.
• Public sector budgets: the fear that if a budget is not spent, then the budget of that department will be reduced for the following year and the unspent money will be “lost” to the department. Allow a department that underspends to roll-over a percentage of the unspent money to the following year with a small reduction for the following year.
• Public should vote for the best ideas to ensure that they have more chance of prominence when viewed by the Government.
• Public, civil society private partnerships - set up, develop, nurture, and ultimately put into fully private ownership entities which otherwise may never have got off the ground.
• Publicly challenge every politician of the country to come up with a genuine idea to save or generate money.
• Publish on the front page of all national newspapers the 600 odd names of the non-resident tax exiles, with details of their business interests.
• Pull together county enterprise boards, Enterprise Ireland, IDA, retired bank managers, credit unions and the Central Bank and create new credit system for businesses.
• Put a 2c tax on txt messages.
• Put a charge on getting lost/damaged EHIC (European Health Insurance Cards) medical cards, drugs payment cards replaced.
• Put a high tax on chewing gum, saving money on street cleaners. Tax pubs for sound disturbance in the Temple Bar area.
• Put a programme in place to ensure that we have a range of tourist offerings that are less weather dependent, such as walking, fishing, bird-watching, music and dance.
• Put more tax on alcohol sold in off-licences and shops. While alcohol sold in pubs and restaurants is expensive, the same cannot be said for sales in off-licences and shops.
• Put new rules and regulations in place for non-nationals claiming social welfare payments e.g. if you come to Ireland you cannot claim any social welfare until you have lived and worked here for a minimum of three years. This will allow a person to build up tax credits which will help the country. The monthly children’s allowance should only be claimed if the children are living in Ireland.
• Put out to tender a company that will sort out the people who are scamming the HSE and social welfare system. Make them work for a finder’s fee, ‘no foal no fee’.
• Put people (capable of working) who are on social welfare payments out on the road to clean and clear road signage.
• Put pressure on banks to invest in small business.
• Put tax of 1 cent on text messages.
• Radical transformation of the healthcare system that was promised via benchmarking with other healthcare system.
• Rather than providing politicians with expenses for accommodation, the state should buy up cheap apartments which would then become available for use by the same politicians.
• Rather than taking a cut in salary, people should be encouraged to take a four-day week.
• Recruit jobseekers to build schools.
• Redefine roles of bodies representing tourism in the Mid-West.
• Redirect Lotto funds into the health service.
• Reduce bank risk by conducting in-depth commercial viability assessments, identifying the key performance indicators and building and implementing strategic plans for survival and growth of SMEs.
• Reduce child care allowance.
• Reduce cost of public liability insurance. A company/individual can sign up to a certain set of best practices which they would then follow; they would then be audited periodically to ensure that they are following these best practices. This in itself should help to reduce the possibility of an accident, but if an accident does occur then the claimant cannot take the company to court, because there is historical proof that the company is not negligent and follows best practice rules.
• Reduce income of TDs.
• Reduce number of sick days taken in public service without certs.
• Reduce our cash contributions in aid by instead sending Irish-made materials, e.g. medical, educational, dry goods, plastic sheeting, water pumps etc and thereby help secure Irish manufacturing jobs.
• Reduce prison service costs.
• Reduce public street lighting by 30% to 50% in housing estates by simply turning off that proportion of lights (a quick flick of a switch on each light pole!) Benefits are lower electricity costs to local authorities and less light pollution, as well as better sleeping patterns (light interferes with sleep).