The Ideas Campaign - the latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Agriculture and food
I suggest that Irish farm cooperatives should form partnerships with similar cooperatives in France to exchange and market each other’s products e.g. French cheese and wine, Irish lamb, dairy products etc. This could involve just one cooperative in each country or a group of cooperatives. Obviously, partner cooperatives would not have to be in France but could also be in another Member State (Italy, Spain, and Greece whose products would be less like those in Ireland).
Agriculture and food
Ireland is known for its hospitality, and its food. Encourage Hotels/B&Bs etc to source ingredients locally (funded by re-directing subventions paid to farmers, and re-positioning tax breaks given to hotels).
Dual benefit - Farmers are paid to produce food that is actually being used (as opposed to butter mountains etc), hotels etc can sell the “Still made here”/”Healthy Food” angle. Money is being spent locally, with economic multiplier effects, the importance of the tourist (both Irish & international) is reinforced through each community, government & European grant money is spent more effectively.
All island economy
My idea comes from France, where it has been used to great success in the last years: Reduce the VAT rate down from 13.5% to 5.5% (supply and build) and from 21.5% to 10% (supply only) for all home improvements in houses that are more than 2 years old.
This would encourage home owners and landlords to do work such as new floors, new wallpaper, new kitchens or bathrooms, new extensions or attic conversion, new landscaping, new boiler, energy saving installations… This would benefit a huge number of retailers, small builders, tradesmen and help retain many jobs. It would also convert into more spending into other sectors by all those who benefit from this measure, and generally boost confidence and morale in the country. The loss in VAT on each purchase would be easily compensated by a greater number of operations and the saving of jobs.
Education
Decentralisation was a mess. Lack of infrastructure and services did not entice City folk away. Now is the time to acquire a land bank and plan infrastructure and this should be done in one or two locations. Consider in 10 years time an alternative administrative centre with a university and world class hospital, where property, school places etc are affordable. It needs to be central with transport links including quality trains to Dublin.
The solution is to centralise a number of government departments outside Dublin - in the Midlands - and to plan for it now - taking advantage of the downturn to utilise the best creative and planning resources for a world class future avoiding the traffic, embedded thinking and cumbersome problems we have seen in Dublin for the last 15 years.
Education
Build a Science Museum in Dublin
My suggestion is that we invite a developer to set up a consortium of developers and voluntary construction teams to plan and build the museum. Innovators and thinkers from universities and schools of technology, right down to community wizards, could collaborate on exhibit design. Fund-raisers could devote their skills free of charge to publicize the museum, to pay for building materials and labour.
This project could be completed by the Dublin City of Science Year, 2012 which is under the direction of Professor Patrick Cunningham, Chief Science Adviser, Forfas. This endeavour would demand expert organization, resource identification, and would need to appeal to the public imagination in order to deliver a first class publicly built, public-involved, public designed, science museum. Exhibits would illustrate and clarify difficult concepts deriving from biology, chemistry and physics, as well as from engineering, environmental science, and finance. Who could resist an interactive exhibit which reveals how ATM machines work.
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons)
Green Business
In waste treatment plants throughout the country, if pig slurry was added it would generate gas that in turn could be used in generating electric, which could then be sold to the national grid or used by the local authority. The dry material left over after this process could be given back to the farmers and this could be spread instead of the slurry, thereby ensuring that no slurry would end up in the water courses. I actually saw this process on television years ago in Holland where 70% of a town energy was generated by the slurry.
Innovation
Let’s aim to convert our weaknesses into strengths.
Weakness: We are a small open economy, largely trading in dollars and sterling
Strength: We are part of a union of nearly twenty countries that trade in the Euro, the largest and richest economy in the world. Let’s learn from our farming sector and start spreading our wings a bit more. Why try to attract Americans and English people who are currency sensitive when we have hundreds of millions of fellow Europeans for whom currency is a non-issue?
Weakness: We are largely monoglot. (The Germans will sell to you in English but you need to sell to them in German)
Strength: Let’s put a real programme in place to become as polyglot as the Dutch within 10 years.
Weakness: Our tourism offering is too American/Anglo focussed, seeking low volume, high spend customers.
Strength: Let’s put a programme in place to ensure that we have a range of tourist offerings that are less weather dependent, such as walking, fishing, bird-watching, music and dance etc - thereby ensuring that we get the volume of tourists in to enable us to become competitive price wise. We are seen abroad as the “Green Island”. It’s a great start.
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons)
Policy
Many state bodies pay high rents for office space in Dublin City. Instead they should buy vacant property and move to offices they own, instead of paying rent, and help stimulate the economy in this way.
Policy
A complete re-structure of both the Seanad and the Dáil. Holland with a population of 18 million has 150 politicians between their upper and lower parliament. Reduce the number of Senators and TDs, restructure the electoral areas along the lines of the provincial system
Policy
I am a GP. For years the HSE have been saying we need to prescribe cheaper drugs etc but they make it very difficult to do so. It would be so simple if we could all just prescribe generic drugs instead of brand names. Currently if I want to prescribe co-amoxiclav, an antibiotic, I can prescribe augmentin, the original drug and most expensive brand or I can prescribe branded generics such as clavamel or germentin. However to do this I need to be aware all the time which is cheapest and this changes all the time.
I think we should all prescribe plain co-amoxiclav and the pharmacist should be obliged to dispense the cheapest generic. This happens in the UK where no one would dream of prescribing augmentin because there are several cheaper alternatives, Also clavamel and germentin are made here by Irish companies so this would help the economy too. I think the government has been afraid to implement this as it receives millions in taxes etc from the big drug companies and doesn’t want to rock the boat with them.
Policy
My Idea is to offer people the option to work while receiving the dole. My husband is unemployed and he would rather do anything than sit at home doing nothing. Ask employers to register to take on a recently unemployed person for a limited amount of hours a week. They could say what they require and what they will offer in terms of training in return. The unemployed people could not only learn new skills but could bring new skills to the company.
Local authorities could also provide positions for people, as could TDs and Councillors, schools, churches, voluntary groups and hospitals. People who take up the option to work for their dole could be rewarded by not having to queue to sign on. We absolutely must keep people working and feeling useful. Long-term unemployment is crushingly depressing and the longer one is unemployed the harder it is to get back into the work force.
Policy
Eliminate the Sunday/weekend premium in the hotel industry. This is a premium on staff when we are at our busiest in the week and makes weekend operations unprofitable especially in food operations. Hotels are struggling at the moment and if wages could be slightly reduced it would give a great help to the industry at a time when with the recession, falling tourist numbers, along with increases in rates etc the hotel industry is on its knees in many parts.
Policy
A skills bank could be set up on a local level i.e. villages, small towns. Each skills bank would consist of unemployed people with a particular skill or trade that could be used locally, from making footpaths to clearing litter (work that local councils can’t get to) and even down to finishing off houses that that are incomplete. The advantage of registering for skills bank could be an additional 10% or so payment on to of social welfare/jobseekers allowance. Every field from accounting to zoology could be tapped into and used to save skills.
Policy
People on job seekers’ benefit/job seekers’ allowance are discouraged from starting a business as they lose all their benefit if they become self employed. It would promote start-up businesses if recipients of JSB/JSA could start a business and if they earn anything make it deductible against the JSB/JSA rather wiping it out immediately. This means that every bit they earn is a saving for the exchequer. If they manage €50/week for the first few weeks they are no worse off for trying and the exchequer can save some money.
The current system where they lose all benefit if they become self employed discourages them from trying. This is especially the case for JSB which is received by people made redundant and may not actually need it they payments (e.g. spouse may still be working) they maximise the payout by not becoming self employed until the benefit runs out. They are effectively being paid not to try starting a business.
Policy
The Government should set up a specific website, like the US Government has done at http://www.govdeals.com/eas/ to sell off Government surplus stock, and items seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Services (local)
Two of my relations needed crutches after operations. As far as I can make out they paid a nominal sum to the hospitals for these. It seems that there is no follow-up to get the crutches back for re-use so my suggestion is that the HSE have drop off points for people to return such items for re-use. Saves money as not so many new items would have to be purchased and most people do not want these items cluttering up their homes anyway.
Social and voluntary
Set up a copper campaign. In many homes - in drawers and glass jars - lie forgotten copper coins which if collected would come to probably over 100 million euro. This money could be collected at local post offices or news agents for a small fee .The money would be used for the most vulnerable of our society in Ireland. It would used as an on going basis. Don’t let those coppers lie there lets get them to work
Sport
Ireland should bid to host Euro 2016. The European Championships are such a wonderful occasion and I’m sure any country snaps your arm off for the opportunity of hosting it.
Croke Park and the new Lansdowne Road would be the two main stadiums. After that you can take your pick from the following stadiums: the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, the famous Thomond Park, Pairc Uí Chaoimh in Cork, Semple Stadium in Thurles, Pearse Stadium in Galway, Clones, Castlebar, Nowlan Park in Kilkenny, Portlaoise, Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. A certain amount of work would need to be done on each of course but not as much as you’d think either.
The second point is that we might not have the infrastructure to handle such an event. Of course we do and again whatever improvements need to be made, we have still have 7 years to do them. If we need more hotels, a better road or rail network we should build them and when the tournament is over and the whole country has gotten rich off the back of it, we would still have all this fantastic infrastructure in place which would attract investment into the country for years to come. The Olympic effect they might call it.
As a venue, Ireland would be an amazing place to hold the tournament. It is actually a beautiful country with very friendly people who love having a laugh. Essentially this is true even if we forget it sometimes. I’m sure our European cousins would be totally psyched at the idea of spending their summer holidays road tripping around Ireland following the footy. Plus Ireland is so small that once you get here it wouldn’t involve too many long trips.
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons)
Tourism
Give all EU citizens free travel in Ireland for a trial period of 3 months to see whether it helps the tourism sector. This should not only apply to bus services in the cities but main line train and bus services as well. If there are concerns regarding peak hours have it only available in non peak hours.
Technology
Google, according to the front page of today’s Irish Times, is sending 5 cars with cameras on their roofs to record “streetscapes” for addition to Google earth and Google maps. This will allow for people to virtual tours of streets in towns and cities of Ireland. The cameras will pick up details of shop fronts and displays in windows etc.
If each business prominently displayed the business web address (website location) boldly on windows or door name plates, free advertising of that business would ensue and potentially generate extra “after hours” or international inquiries. So… start displaying your web addresses and watch for the Google cameras as they drive around capturing your details!
Technology
Texting on mobile phones is an extremely popular means of communication. Very often too the full capacity of the text “space” is not used. i.e., some messages like “c u @ 9.” leave a lot of unused characters/space on the screen.
The technology would allow for the use of this unused space and I think it could be arranged to have an additional template embedded in it e.g. the owner of the phones email or web address. Accordingly every time you sent a text you would be advertising, at your discretion, information on your business to the recipient of the text. In short, the unused element of the text would be used to impart some other information, embedded in the text that might generate further enquiries or economic activity. Mobile phone companies should be invited to offer such a service.
Transport
A couple of years ago I visited Ciampino Airport in Rome. The Airport is a Civil & Military Airport. I think this approach would work well in an Irish Airport. My idea is to move the Irish Air Corps to Shannon Airport and to free up Baldonnel to be used as a commercial airport (perhaps a ‘low-fare’ airport) to attract tourism and appropriate airport dependent businesses into the area. (The road & rail network is close by too!)
This could create a catalyst or stimulus for major (privately funded) construction and infrastructure projects in west Dublin/Kildare. Some of the financial benefits could be earmarked for the Dept. of Defence budget. This would also create a significant stimulus in the mid-west area and support the future of the airport/ regional development. It would appear to me that there are natural linkages between the notion of a military presence at Shannon and the fact that the airport already houses the US home land security pre-immigration service, Irish Coast Guard, etc.
Transport
Why not build a four lane bridge from Ireland to Wales, the building creates jobs, the maintenance creates jobs, creates jobs in customs, security on both sides. It speeds up delivery of goods from one country to another; no plane costs, no shipping costs, no waiting around for the truck to be loaded up etc.
The toll would say be €12 and €10 of that is divided evenly between countries with €2 being used for maintenance. It’s 64 km from Dublin to Wales. To summarise it, cuts cost for travel for ordinary people and business creates jobs in both economies both economies will benefit from money regains tourism industry will grow as it’s easier to come over and leave
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons)
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