The Ideas Campaign - sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Here is a selection of the ideas that have been pouring into the Ideas Campaign website. Please note that some have been edited, for space or clarity, for publication here. An idea’s inclusion on the website does not indicate it will be included in our final action plan for the Government.
Construction
Double the amount of electricity available from wind farms by building hydro-storage stations near or beside all wind farms. Build upper reservoirs and lower reservoirs similar to the ESB hydro-electric plant at Turlough Hill in Wicklow. SEI (Sustainable Environment Ireland) has done a study on this alternative approach to energy production. This technology has been tried and tested, it works, it lasts for decades, and could slash the cost of our energy bills/ production bills/ and everything that follows on from that. I suggest the Government launch a scheme to build these hydro-storage stations all around the country. Get the economy moving, draw on the ESB’s previous experience with Turlough Hill, and do it fast before it is too late. Master it, and we could pioneer this approach all over the world.
Construction
Over the last 15 years, Ireland has accumulated a huge amount of civil engineering expertise in roads, bridges, water treatment plants, sewerage plants, pipelines, reservoirs, landfills, ports etc. Irish civil engineers (especially those in contracting) are highly regarded internationally as being practical, pragmatic, safety conscious and having the drive to get projects completed on programme.
The challenge now is to retain this expertise - if we people in the 30 to 45-year-old bracket it will be near impossible to get them back. This group of 30 to 45-year-old engineers have terrific skills sets and their expertise could be harnessed. Huge opportunities are available across the EU, especially Eastern Europe (Brussels has earmarked billions for Poland alone and they lack the expertise to deliver these projects just as Ireland did in the early 1990’s) where substantial sums will be invested in infrastructure over the next decade.
I suggest that an expert group/working party group be immediately set up in connection with Enterprise Ireland (and possibly Engineers Ireland) to see how we can package this expertise, market to Europe and develop links with local companies.
A full supply chain of expertise (site investigation, materials testing, civil construction & design) could be supplied, provided we can offer competitive tenders and control costs both here at home and with local country suppliers.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons.)
Education
In the 1990s, Ballyfermot College of Further Education became (according to Disney) one of the top five colleges in the world for animation. This was achieved in five years through close links with the Don Bluth studios here in Dublin.
3D Animation and 3D graphics is now the foundation of the multi-billion dollar Games industry. Each year we export 3D artists to Scotland and the US.
We need to develop the idea of a Technology Development Park to retain these skills and develop the Games industry in Ireland. Expand the existing colleges and encourage games companies to do in-house training here.
Education
This idea is about making further education and training available to more people. I work as Principal of a College of Further Education. The students do training courses for jobs or for advancement to Higher Ed. Unfortunately, the numbers are capped nationally so we technically have no places for the ‘new unemployed’, many of them school-leavers who might otherwise have got jobs or apprenticeships.
My idea is that the Dept of Education gives us more part-time teaching hours to expand/set up new courses. Under current policy, I will be forced to drop 2/3 teachers next year and they will go on the unemployment register as they are part-time or contract teachers. If they were hired to teach these young adults, neither the students nor the teachers would be claiming benefits.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons.)
Green businesses
The ‘national’ taxi fleet is aging and needs to be updated. My solution to this problem has environmental, tourism, and business benefits.
Reduce our carbon footprint by investing in new cars for our ‘national’ taxi fleet. All taxis should be a specific colour all over the country -an Irish ‘Green Cab’ similar to London’s world famous ‘Black Cab’ - as this would be a plus to tourists. Taxis should be used to compliment the public transport system. With Government support, this would be a realistic package that would be attractive to the operators and the public, as well as creating a safe and structured industry.
Green businesses
There will be a world shortage of steel wind turbines & possibly a shortage of teams to install and maintain them. Get FAS to train teams of wind turbine engineers to design, manufacture, install and maintain advanced wind turbines and other renewable technologies.
Make Ireland a world centre of excellence for renewable energy. Surely its time to invest in training programmes now?
Innovation
I have worked as a marketing mentor for a County Enterprise Board. It is clear to me that there are many people with good small business ideas who don’t ever get as far as opening the door of their local Enterprise Board office. Many small business start-ups begin without any of the help that could be so valuable at their inception. And the reason they don’t access that help is that it doesn’t occur to them that the County Enterprise Boards exist for people like THEM.
That’s the background to my suggestion, which is to have Ideas Evenings in local parish halls, where potential start-up businesses can get an initial evaluation on their business idea and advice on how to proceed, delivered in an accessible, non jargon format.
The local advertising to promote the evenings should have an emphasis on accessibility, welcoming people of all ages. The advisors could either be local consultants, who would offer their time pro bono, or representatives from the relevant agencies as long as they remember to leave the jargon at the front door!
Pharmaceutical / bio pharmaceutical / medical devices
My idea is that the Government should set up a National Process Development Centre to develop chemical processes for the pharmachem industry. This should have links to universities and ITs as well as the multinational industries based here. There is a similar institute in Israel (see http://www.pilotplantcenter.com).
The Government has already established a similar centre for biotechnology, namely NIBRT in Dublin. Setting up a National Process Development Centre would reinforce Ireland’s standing as one of the major world centres of pharmaceutical chemical synthesis and would build on the concept already applied in NIBRT.
Policy
Having lived, worked and studied in Silicon Valley, I feel that I am well placed to make suggestions about what Ireland needs to do to become a ‘Silicon Island’.
We have to prioritise the education and supply of high-end R&D graduates at a relatively low cost from our Universities and Institutes of technology. Our Universities and ITs should have a strong commercial policy and links with industry. These should be international, not just national links. IDA Ireland needs to shift its focus on linking Universities to the international R&D centres of world renowned companies.
Silicon Valley has prospered because of a strong Venture Capital community. We need to encourage more risk taking for Venture Capital in this country by offering greater tax relief in this area.
We also need strong financial incentives to attract world class thinkers, leaders and innovators to our rainy but green country. We should not put all our eggs in one basket and I fear we are focusing too much on “green” enterprises. Housing, access to education, should be made available to these international visitors. Just like the tax breaks and assistance IDA gives to companies, we need to do likewise to individuals that can help our economy grow. Silicon Valley does not produce people like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, it attracts them.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons.)
Policy
We have vast oil resources of our West coast and we need to renegotiate the contracts signed with multinational corporations for exploring and developing these resources. We need to start by setting up our own State oil Company. In Norway, the money generated by their national oil company is put back into the country, benefiting everything from health to education.
Policy
If the trend to off-shore all the IT development tasks to India and other locations continues, in 15 years time there will be no one available in Ireland to conduct the high end tasks. At that point Ireland will be required to import these skills and the software development industry as we know it will be lost. The reality is that most developers in software houses in India are actually graduates. The cost of such resources can be as low as €50-€100 per day. Difficult to compete with, but the Irish IT sales pitch needs to change to quality, on-time delivery over pure cost.
My idea is to somehow combat this without being accused of protectionism. Graduate programs are one angle. Allow a company to hire Degree level IT graduates for software development and technical management roles on a three-year ‘apprenticeship’. This would be a fixed term contract that the employer is not obliged to continue after the three years. This could be structured to provide cost benefit to the company by way of tax credits or Enterprise Ireland grants.
The economy benefits by retaining a solid base of software designers and engineers in the long term.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons.)
Retail
My idea is an e-tailing venture that would compete with the likes of Etsy, DaWanda Artfire and Folksy in promoting handmade Irish crafts produce. While there are undoubtedly great resources for craftspeople in Ireland, there is little to nothing on the e-commerce side of things. Etsy and the likes have had major success and I believe, after consultation with customers and crafters themselves, that an Irish site inspired by these would do very well.
Sport
Why don’t we revive the National Stadium project? It would be a vital piece of national infrastructure which in the longer term could earn us money through sports tourism etc. For example, if we had the National Stadium now, we could offer world-class acclimatisation facilities pre-London Olympics 2012. We could host a world athletics or boxing championships. Combine a National Stadium with Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium and we could make a realistic joint bid with the other ‘Celtic Nations’ to host a European Football Championships.
Tourism
Once you encounter a busy and thriving waterway system such as the Canal du Midi in France, you realise how lifeless the canals in Dublin really are. In Dublin, with its population of well over 1 million, you don’t see any barges of people actually living on the canal as they do in Amsterdam or Paris or Oxford. That’s why I’m proposing a substantial repopulation of the Grand Canal in Dublin. This would have many benefits including:
- A substantial increase in waterways tourism
- A very cheap form of housing for first-time buyers and tenants
- Direct and indirect business spin-offs for local suppliers, from retailing to restaurants
- The development of a specialised “green” barge building industry, with all the ancillary products and services that would entail (fitters, furniture makers, repairers, solar panel installers etc)
- Seasonal employment for lock-keepers, guides and staff on the large tourist cruisers
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons.)
Tourism
Build a coastal walking path all around Ireland similar to the coastal Grande Randonee in France. We have a wonderful coastline, but it is hard to access most of it. Pay landowners a small fee for access. This would attract tourists and create jobs in tourist sector, provide significant employment during its construction (labour intensive, low materials cost) and allow our people the chance to enjoy their own country
Transport
Dublin Bus recently announced that it was mothballing a large number of buses due to falling demand for its services. This is both a waste of valuable assets (the buses aren’t being used), and a drain on current resources, (they will still need to be maintained while in storage).
Simultaneously, I note that Bus Eireann have recently reintroduced double-decker buses onto some routes in Cork. These buses are brand new. Almost all of Cork’s current fleet is single-decker, and I believe the same is true of the fleets in Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
I propose that, rather than buying new buses for Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick, the mothballed buses belonging to Dublin Bus would be given/leased to Bus Eireann for use in the regional cities, or for use on the routes between dormitory towns and the major employment centres.
This should be an easy change to implement, as Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus are in the same group of companies under state management.
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