The Ideas Campaign - latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Education
The Government should fund the education of Irish students at the best colleges in the world for the critical knowledge-based disciplines like engineering, design and science.
I have two friends who had to turn down the opportunity to study at Berkeley and MIT because of funding restrictions. The Government could fund these people’s education abroad on condition that they return to Ireland afterwards and help create knowledge-based enterprises.
Education
My company recently advertised a vacant position in the company. We were looking for an electronic engineer with fluent Italian. We only received two applications and both were from outside Ireland. This is probably not surprising since the vast majority of students in Ireland learn French, Spanish or German.
My idea is to promote languages more in schools, at both primary and secondary level. Many languages are similar so I don’t see a reason why schools cannot teach multiple languages to students during primary and secondary school as apposed to just one foreign language. Improved language skills would be a great advantage for Ireland in the globalised economy.
Education
We should encourage the recycling of corporate IT infrastructure into the educational system These days, the corporate world tends towards a three-year renewal cycle with IT infrastructure and most surplus IT equipment generally ends up in Africa or the Middle East for recycling and metals recovery.
My idea is that this hardware could be diverted into the educational system. This would result in schools having a much larger and wider base of hardware on which to gain experience.
Schools could also access a wider range of licenses for software, and - if you include the possibilities presented by various Open Source projects, such as OpenOffice, Linux, Eclipse, Moodle and so on - this becomes an even more cost effective proposition.
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons)
Green business
My idea is a tax relief scheme for investment in renewable energy companies. This would stimulate huge investment in the sector, and create a large number of sustainable jobs
There is in the region of €300 billion on deposit in Ireland at present and tapping into some of these funds through a ‘Renewable Energy Tax Relief Scheme’ would kickstart this whole industry.
Green business
My idea is a slight modification on the proposal (in Ideas batch 
to remove all VAT on insulation products.
My amendment is that there should be a 24-month period for VAT reduction on insulation products followed by a rise in the VAT charged on household fuel. This would concentrate the minds of householders, and builders would be encouraged to insulate houses to give a better rating.
Green business
The problem most often associated with wind energy is that people think that the turbines are unsightly and residents, who do not benefit financially from wind farms, often object. A way to reduce objections and expedite planning would be to get the community involved.
My proposal involves offering shares in each wind farm or single turbine to people actually living in proximity to the turbine. A 1.5mw unit will generate enough electricity to power approximately 1,000 homes.
The cost of a unit of this size is €1.2 million. So in effect 1000 shares could be sold at €1,200 each. With some tweaking of the concept, community buildings could be provided with free electricity by donating shares to them at no cost.
People would continue to pay their bills each month but they would receive a buy-back cheque (dividend) from the syndicate on a regular basis. This money could be offset against their bill. This clean energy would reduce individual house-holders’ carbon footprint by way of their investment and would help Ireland to meet its international obligations.
Policy
My idea is that Ireland becomes as well known for competitive venture capital rates as it currently is for competitive Corporation Tax rates.
Let anyone, from any country, who is thinking of starting a high-tech business know that Ireland will, if her experts consider the business worthwhile according to the usual rules of venture capitalism, offer venture capital at a fraction of the typical rate.
The conditions would be that the new company would have to base its headquarters in Ireland (not punitive considering our tax rates) and would have to agree to employ a certain percentage of its workforce in this country as well.
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons)
Retail
My idea is the launch of a ‘National Spend or Buy Day’ to get the nation spending again. A monthly ‘National Spend or Buy Day’ would help inject money into local economies and increase exchequer VAT returns.
People would be asked to buy something that they wouldn’t normally buy day to day or make a purchase they have been putting off.
The amount of money a person spends is totally at their discretion, so it could be €5 or €5000, whatever the person/family can afford.
It could be a meal out, an item of clothing, a treat for the kids etc - it doesn’t matter as long as additional money is spent in the economy on these days. Businesses could offer incentives such as discounts on products and services to ensure people are getting value for the amount of money they decide to spend.
Services (local)
A large proportion of drinking water abstracted and treated by local authorities leaks out through old and worn out piping systems. My idea is that we redirect resources away from building NEW water treatment works to repairing the existing systems.
The work is relatively labour intensive and will give the construction industry a boost. The longer term benefits will be to conserve scarce water resources, reduce the energy input in water production and, ultimately, help both the country and the planet.
Services (local)
There is an increasing amount of retail/commercial/services space under-used or becoming vacant in town centres and commercial areas all over Ireland.
In many cases, this space is owned by developers under stress or in administration by the financial institutions. In the same way that non-performing loans may be isolated in a toxic bank, could this property be administered by a ‘vacant property’ organisation?
My idea is that such property could be made available (on relatively short leases) to small service operations such as shoe repairers, furniture restorers, specialist printers, artists, craft food retailers, designers, dressmakers etc who currently cannot afford high street rents.
Local authorities would contribute by awarding rate free periods and insurance companies would offer reduced rates etc. The effect could be similar to the original Temple Bar where CIE offered short leases at nominal rents which then attracted a huge variety of creative activities and industries.
This approach would mean that towns and cities in Ireland would gain the creative and entrepreneurial mix Continental cities achieve through rent control/ public ownership and rigorous planning policies.
Sport
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was initially established as an independent Irish organisation for promoting athletics. Croke Park’s design has provision for an athletics track around the perimeter of the stadium so it would be great if the GAA utilised this opportunity to attract international athletic events to the capital.
Technology
My idea is an easy win to save money on the public sector phone bill by using VOIP technologies such as Skype or JaJah. Calls between Skype users are completely free and calls to landlines are very cheap (especially internationally).
The Skype software is free to install and they have business packages that should be suitable for government offices. JaJah is an even simpler system and is just as cheap as Skype.
Technology
Technology based start-ups have a problem finding people with the right skills, even today. At the same time, a lot of talent is in many cases under-utilised in the public services, Government research bodies and academia.
In the current environment, moving from public service to a start-up environment may be perceived as excessively risky. My idea is a career break for high skilled public/semi-state employees. Here is how it might work. Start-ups can register an interest in certain types of personnel currently employed as public servants.
If a match is made, and current employers agree, the Government agrees to pay 50% of salary for two years and the start-up finances the other 50% from its own funds/equity.
At end of two years, the ‘career break’ candidate is given the option of returning to the public service. The benefits of this scheme would include:
- the start-up gets access to talent that is currently effectively unavailable
- the start-up gets a subsidy at a critical stage
- the Government achieves necessary cuts while developing an economically critical sector
- the scheme could be implemented quickly, informally and cheaply
Tourism
My idea is that we develop and promote Ireland as a destination for equestrian holidays. Bodies like Teagasc, the AIRC (Association of Irish Riding Clubs) and the Irish Horse Board should develop packs for farmers, riding clubs and tourism businesses so that individuals and businesses can “join the dots” to expand equestrian activity both for foreign tourists and for Irish riders.
I believe that equestrian enthusiasts from Europe and further afield would be prepared to pay quite a bit for access to the best riding country in Europe.
Tourism
My idea has to do with themed tourism. Next to the Isle of Man, Ireland (north and south) has the world’s best motorbike road-racing heritage, but this heritage exists in an almost underground way. There is very limited promotion of it, and therefore little related tourism.
Strong tourism is increasingly about unique and memorable experiences. Motorcycle-themed tourism is both unique and memorable and has the potential to build strong repeat tourism business.
My idea is to properly market our bike road-racing heritage and to turn the major road races into much bigger tourist attractions.
We need to help the clubs that run the events, help improve the circuits, develop TV rights, and work hard on safety With the right approach, we can market Ireland as the home of the most exciting, authentic motorsport in the world.
Tourism
The exhibition and conference sector could make a substantially larger contribution to our economy now that the conference venue in the Docklands is about to open along with a new Exhibition Centre at Citywest. Places like Birmingham and Harrogate in the UK have turned themselves into international exhibition hubs that generate millions for both the local and national economies.
We now have the infrastructure, particularly around the Dublin area, to host these big events. Research from a few years ago (www.big.ie) highlighted that the business tourist spends in the region of 70% more per day than the vacation tourist.
Having ’sampled’ Ireland, many business tourists could also return to Ireland in a tourist capacity bringing friends and family. All of this will create real jobs, real growth and a positive impact both direct and indirect to our economy and country.
Transport
Many airlines flying to/from the US cannot afford to purchase landing slots in Heathrow, so Shannon should offer free or minimal landing charges to encourage transatlantic airlines to use Shannon
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