Summary of ideas submitted in the Policy category…

• Offer small business employers a database of suitably qualified people who need to get back into employment. To reduce exploitation of the scheme: the employee claim their 200 euro per week, for 1 year, (20 hours per week) Employer pays for e.g. 2% tax when they hire under the scheme + PRSI Employer can hire 3 persons with the intention of employing 1 after this time period.
• Offer visas and, after time, permanent citizenship to the Irish diaspora.
• Offset potential dole earnings against PAYE payments of the citizen if he gets a job.
• Only give children’s allowance to those who partake in a parenting course.
• Only give motoring and energy tax write-offs to people who invest in fuel efficient cars and ecologically sustainable fuel.
• Open up residential property purchase within personal pensions.
• Outlaw tax breaks for developers.
• Overcome the fiscal trap by borrowing, taxing capital assets and opening up the pension reserve fund to infrastructural and enterprise investment.
• Partner recently made redundant executives with both new and existing small business.
• Patriotic bond with tax relief. For example, the tax payer has €4,100 as a liability, purchases a Government bond for €10,000, and receives 41% tax relief thus eliminating his current tax liability. The bond is redeemed in 5-10 years for €10,000. The net result is that Exchequer would receive €10,000 more than if the tax payer had invested in a pension fund and €5,900 more had the tax payer not purchased any bond.
• Pay a percentage of social welfare benefits in vouchers for food, fuel, electricity and other essentials.
• Pay a portion of social welfare/children’s allowances in An Post vouchers or equivalent valid for six months.
• Pay people higher social welfare for each year of their lives that they have worked and paid taxes and PRSI.
• Penalise companies who leave the country by forcing them to pay back a percentage of the tax they saved by originally locating here.
• Penalise tax havens.
• People participating in Back To Work schemes should be asked to contribute 10-15 hours a week to community schemes e.g. maintaining of public amenities etc
• People who are willing and able to incur a large salary reduction should take a hit now and be rewarded with a new SSIA-style scheme when the economy begins to recover.
• People who are working on the black market should be allowed to make an anonymous tax return on their income.
• People who have been made redundant and wish to start their own businesses should be allowed to access year’s social welfare up front, like a business grant, to help them get started.
• People who have paid off their mortgage should reduce their working week to allow trainees an opportunity to gain work experience.
• People with fixed rate mortgages with both AIB and Bank of Ireland (re-capitalised banks) should be allowed, without penalty, to avail of a variable rate mortgages which are currently available in these banks.
• People working in the public sector should submit proposals for eliminating waste in their own or other departments.
• Persons investing 50% or more of a redundancy package in a new business should be entitled to a full income tax rebate.
• Pick a day in the future when all prices and pay will be cut nationwide by round 15%.
• Place a €1million cap on bank deposits to force cash-rich individuals invest their money.
• Place all full-time employees on a 4-day week or a 9-day fortnight.
• Place savings in a workers fund which will be repaid with bonus payments when the economy recovers.
• Private individuals investing in Irish companies should be exempt, for 5 years, from taxes on such investments.
• Privatise all of the health care service.
• Privatise all semi-state bodies and some state bodies.
• Promote Ireland as the worldwide hub for ‘angel’ and private investor investment in trading products and service companies.
• Promote start-up businesses if recipients of job seekers benefit / allowance could start a business and if they earn anything, make it deductible against the JSB/JSA rather than wiping it out immediately.
• Provide a €15,000 Government grant to help SMEs retain their employees.
• Provide a short term increase in the rate of mortgage interest relief to offset 100% of interest on mortgage repayments. A similar mechanism to provide relief on commercial loan repayments is also needed.
• Provide Government assistance to companies to keep them afloat and to keep them in the country.