The latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Agriculture and food
Allow more abattoirs to be open. There are very few abattoirs in Ireland; they were forced to close down due to policy.
Butchers currently have to purchase their raw material from large factories. The raw material sourced by factories is not always home grown. By opening abattoirs we are encouraging butchers to operate in small villages and towns, therefore:
- Creating employment and encouraging farmers to keep producing quality products for a fair price
- Sustaining jobs on Irish farms and encouraging young people to maintain this lifestyle and reducing the amount of food being imported
- Reducing air miles
- Encouraging people to buy Irish
All island economy
A certificate of Irishness - to promote trade and industry. The value of Irish connections in generating trade is well known.
Many people living outside Ireland enjoy having an Irish heritage and would value being recognised as such. The Irish diaspora could be used to support trade and business in Ireland.
Set up a certificate of Irishness recognising a person’s Irish heritage - this would not give anyone any citizen’s rights (passports), but would foster a sense of identity and a tie to Ireland.
There are many influential and wealthy business people around the world who claim Irish roots. A database, collected through the issuing of certificates, could then be used to promote business ties and foster relations to encourage trade and employment.
All island economy
Ireland should organise many more trade fairs and exhibitions. Fairs or exhibitions organised by Ireland would attract lots of worldwide and local exhibitors and visitors.
Most European countries have many of them every month. Fairs bring to the economy millions in revenue for tax payers and millions to the local economy on accommodation, hotels, and transport.
Ireland should become one of the European leaders in industry, agriculture and technology which would contribute to the hundreds of millions to the Irish economy and create thousands of jobs.
Construction
Publish a list of all proposed government funded projects so that some private individuals can fund one that they think is worthy, with the government to return their money over a period of time.
Basically this is a loan from the private sector to the government on a specific project picked by the individual.
Education
In the past number of years there has been a huge increase in the number of overweight children. Some of these are going to be a burden on the health service in the coming years.
I propose that a bigger part of the school day should focus on exercise for children. I think it is very unhealthy to drive children to school, have them sitting down till 3 to 4pm and then home again in the car or off to classes.
If kids were made to exercise for the first half hour in the school yard to kickstart the day and again in the afternoon, I also think this would heat them up and the heating would not need to be turned up as much.
This would help reduce the load on the health services and also reduce the heating bill for schools. It could also possibly encourage healthy eating and encourage them to use locally grown fruit and vegetables.
Education
Encourage non-resident Irish citizens to return to Ireland to pursue postgraduate degrees, without the sting of international student fee rates.
As a dual Irish/Canadian citizen, residing in Canada, I have researched postgraduate study opportunities (business/marketing at the PhD level) in Ireland.
While I found a potentially “good fit” in Galway, it became apparent that if I had not resided in Ireland in the two or three years prior to my studies, I would be treated as a non-Irish international student and the related fees would be unaffordable to me.
Ireland could encourage/help non-resident Irish citizens to return and study at citizen rates if their thesis topic was related to innovation and the Irish economy, and they resided in Ireland for at least two years of their PhD study period (a portion of the dissertation could be done at a distance).
Part of their studies would include a community outreach/education component to share their findings with the local community.
For Ireland, there would be a clear benefit of bright minds returning to put their energies behind driving economic innovation.
Education
Education in ITC (internet and telecommunications) is a must for each and every citizen of Ireland as we progress into the future. Every child attending school should be IT literate.
With the closure of many multinational or small businesses we need to ask what will happen to their now redundant office ware, i.e. left over computers servers, cables etc.
Can we set up a charity or organisation that will collect all redundant hardware and modify it so that it can be used for educational purposes?
For example, the redundant e-voting machines are still held in storage, the inner hardware wiring will be of immense use.
Green business
Ireland needs to catch up on the green agenda and the benefits of carbon reduction. By 2012, Marks & Spencer will only accept suppliers that are carbon neutral. Irish manufacturers must strive to improve their green policies and quality rankings in order to attract foreign buyers.
The Irish government needs to be more proactive in this area and create a climate change bill similar to the UK model.
Innovation
Engineers’ and scientists’ tax exemption. This idea involves applying a scheme similar to the artists’ tax exemption to engineers and scientists.
There are large disincentives to these vital professions at present. Engineers and scientists are among the most challenging intellectually but are not as well paid and are somewhat insecure compared with many other professions.
The reason for this is that engineers and scientists have to compete on the world stage and are not protected by barriers to competition or powerful lobby groups.
Young people have accordingly been voting with their feet and abandoning science and engineering courses for more lucrative and/or more secure careers. This idea would have multiple benefits:
- reduce costs of hiring high tech talent in Ireland
- attract even more high tech industry to our shores
- increase the numbers studying science and engineering
- attract scientific and engineering talent from around the world
- move us up that value chain at record pace
Innovation
People come up with ideas for new products all the time. The difficult part is of course developing and financing these ideas.
The people who are serious about making a living from creating something from these ideas need other people to help them develop the “concept”.
I suggest that the government provide an institute of innovation/design in connection with third-level colleges where they ask people to come with their ideas and offer them solutions on where they can find qualified people to undertake the development of their “concept”.
I think a national innovation/design institute could be a place where people with ideas could come and be put in touch with designers to develop their ideas and, once approved, get the financial people involved. The new idea would have to remain the property of the inventor/designer, and industry advice would be required.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Manufacturing
A considerable amount of oil and gas have been found off the South and West coast of Ireland. The companies that have found it have too little resources in a time of loan scarcity to bring it ashore soon.
I suggest the government should negotiate deals with them to bring it ashore quickly with the government providing the funds. The rental cost of drilling rigs has collapsed recently and it should take no more than two or three years to start bringing the oil and or gas production on-stream.
Even though the companies will get a good part of the profits, it would be a nice little bonanza for the government. If the financial market believes we have oil, the rate of interest on our soon to be massive loans should drop so we should see benefits from it long before it arrives ashore.
Pharmaceutical / bio pharmaceutical / medical devices
A huge amount of waste occurs every year in the form of medications which are prescribed unnecessarily. Medication prescriptions are often repeated without much attention being paid.
Often a person will get a repeat prescription and it will contain medication which is no longer required.
As a community nurse this is a common observation. This is a particular burden on the state in cases where the medication is bought using a medical card or drug payment scheme. It is also dangerous.
A simple health policy which is audited, whereby clinicians must conduct an assessment that ensures all repeat prescriptions are relevant and are being taken, could save vast amounts of money. This is also a health and safety issue.
Policy
A reform of the healthcare system is needed which should include an electronic patient record system at its core.
The major challenges facing the healthcare provider are cost and access. A major component of any reform of the healthcare systems will require the creation of an electronic patient record where the citizen becomes owner and caretaker of their information.
They carry the information to the service as opposed to individual healthcare providers owning pieces of the individual’s record.
The creation of an electronic record system will create a platform for efficiencies. This would result in more money available within budget to spend on services and less money spent on administration.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Policy
I am a working mother and I know a number of mothers in my area that are single parents and also work and get paid under the table, they often have three incomes - social welfare, maintenance and their work income.
It is unbelievable the number of people that I know that do this. I also work in an organisation where some staff claim sick benefit and also get paid from their employer when out sick, i.e. they get a double benefit as some organisations are not sharp enough in seeking the social welfare amounts. I work in administration and these employees play the system.
There needs to be a confidential helpline (like for insurance fraud) that is well managed and nationally advertised. It would encourage people to report the fraud and allocate benefits to those who genuinely need it.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Policy
Mental illness causes great burden to the sufferer and their family. In economic terms a recent Irish study estimated the cost of schizophrenia at half a billion euro per annum.
Much of this is attributed to long-term care, including day care and residential costs and loss of skills to the workplace. Many international studies of early treatment for psychosis/schizophrenia show that early detection and intervention greatly improves long-term outcome thus cutting costs.
In Ireland only one early detection for psychosis service exists. Introducing such services throughout the country would serve to reduce huge burden and subsequently reduce long-term health care costs.
Services (international)
My suggestion is to focus on countries that aren’t currently in recession, to see what they are doing right, such as Canada, or to look back in time to see how countries that were in recession in the past overcame their difficulties.
There were very few jobs in Ireland in the 1980s and many people had to emigrate. The IDA set about attracting foreign investment from countries that were prospering. Multinational companies were set up here, creating many jobs.
I suggest that the IDA try attracting investment from other countries that are now doing well right now, such as Canada, not ones that are no longer prospering and are in recession.
Services (local)
Many SMEs or start-ups have insufficient track record or purchase volumes to gain best prices from suppliers. My idea is to set up an online forum whereby SMEs could find partner firms who purchase the same items with a view to combining purchase quantities and thereby negotiating better discounts.
This could be used for securing professional services, bulk standard items etc.
Tourism
A ‘beat the recession’ website giving details of restaurants, hotels, and a variety of other businesses that have dropped their prices should be set up, to show who is offering value for money.
Several restaurants are now offering great value and it would be great for all of us to have easy access to a list of good value businesses so that we can support them. This would encourage more people to drop their prices, make things more affordable and get people spending again.
Tourism
Harness the great enthusiasm for golf in this country in such a way that it benefits the tourism industry in a different way to how it has been promoted to date.
Try to get more golfers or potential golfers to spend their holidays in Ireland thus benefiting Irish hotels and golf clubs/courses.
The basic idea would be that hotels with golf courses attached would offer at attractive rates a golfing holiday with a difference i.e. a golf tuition holiday where a professional golfer would provide both group lessons and individual tuition throughout the week to both beginners and established golfers interspersed with some competitive rounds of golf between the various participants taking part in the tuition course.
The course could also be enhanced with talks by relevant experts on the mental aspects of the game plus a demonstration of recommended physical education exercises designed to develop those muscles and other parts of the body most frequently used by golfers.
This idea could also be taken up by hotels which don’t have their own golf courses but which do have a close relationship with their local golf club.
If developed further this could provide much needed business for the struggling hotel industry as well as for many golf clubs throughout the country that are also going through difficult times.
There is a growing success of summer camps held each year for teaching soccer, tennis, etc to young school children. This idea is along the same lines but is aimed mainly at enthusiastic golfers/potential golfers of all ages and would be on a much wider scale.
Tourism
As a fan of France, I compare the process of organising my holiday there as opposed to organising one here if I were French.
I have always found it easier to organise a French holiday within my budget than an Irish one. One thing that jumps out is the fact that almost every tourist website, theme park and campsite on the continent offers multilingual web site support. Most Irish sites just appear to offer English. There is a much more inclusive European feel to continental websites.
There are opportunities for multilingual translation, localisation and maintenance services in the tourism sector if the Irish sites were built for tourists around the world.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons)
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