Summary of ideas submitted in the Policy category…

• Encourage people to start their own business by promoting the Seed Capital Scheme and relaxing some of the current restrictions.
• Encourage people to work from home by making changes in the planning and tax laws.
• Encourage state procurement officers to purchase goods from small Irish firms.
• Enforce a motor tax law on foreign registered cars.
• Ensure all National Development Plan spend is put through investment appraisal models such as discounted cash flow, using an acceptable discounted cash flow rate of return.
• Ensure teachers giving grinds etc are fully tax compliant by making it illegal to do so without providing a receipt.
• Ensure the best people are elected as public representatives and they should be monitored with monthly progress reports made public.
• Enterprise Ireland should not give help to business solely on the basis of the industry they operate in; assistance should be based on profitability potential.
• Entrepreneurs should get tax incentives/breaks based on the number of people they employ.
• Establish an independent body to take charge of long-term exchequer vision. This body should have the power to raise or lower some taxes.
• Establish an operational programme fund for small businesses to grant aid to businesses that have the ability to grow in future but are struggling in the current economic climate
• Establish Gaeltacht villages in all our major cities and towns.
• Establish Skills’ Banks in villages and small towns. The ’shareholders’ in the Skills’ Bank would be unemployed people with a particular skill or trade that could be used locally.
• Everyone should take a 10% pay cut and all bank loans should be written down by 25%.
• Everyone should to donate one week’s pay to the Government.
• Examine progressive landlord / tenant law on the continent and introduce it into Irish law to give tenants a fairer deal, and a better negotiating position.
• Examine the policy of having separate capital and operational budgets.
• Examine the possibility of non-nationals claiming benefits when they are not residing in Ireland.
• Exchange houses that are been written off as bad debts by the banks as part payment for the Government bail-out and sell as affordable housing.
• Extend and increase tax breaks for investment.
• Extract oil and gas from the west coast which has a supposed value of $1 trillion.
• Fast-track the building of Thornton Hall prison and increase CAB’s powers.
• Focus on increasing exports: ask for ideas for exports from all sectors of industry and back them.
• Freeze contributions to the National Pension Fund to generate additional resources during the economic downturn.
• Freeze or reduce rates of rent on office space (used by the State?) and use the freed up cash to invest in new employees.
• Get a list of all the staff in the HSE who have a mobile phone plus other add on items like mobile broadband, and reduce the number of phones by half.
• Get all elected officials to sign a code of ethics similar to a business code of conduct.
• Get all political parties to prepare financial plan for 5 years before each election and have it priced.
• Get all public servants to become genuine problem solvers for their customers i.e. take real responsibility for their job.
• Get all universities and departments with similar needs to make use of their greater buying power by tendering for IT and other contracts together.
• Get all workers to pay the Government €2,500 a year for five years as an interest free loan.
• Get groups like the GAA to form local groups to come up with ways of improving the community get the local FAS office to implement their ideas
• Get IDA to try and attract companies from prospering nations such as Canada.
• Get people to register for dole online to speed up process. Weekly sign on could be done by fingerprint scanning making it faster.