Aileen O’Toole, founder of the Ideas Campaign, today welcomed the launch of Your Country Your Call, the national competition under the patronage of President Mary McAleese designed to reward transformational proposals for Irish economic prosperity.
Posts Tagged ‘Aileen O’Toole’
Ideas Campaign welcomes President’s economic competition
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010Ideas Campaign welcomes Government response
Tuesday, July 21st, 200921 July 2009
The Ideas Campaign today (Tuesday 21 July) welcomed the response by the Government about implementing ideas generated through the Ideas Campaign.
The campaign’s founder Aileen O’Toole said it is encouraging that the Government has responded so positively and so comprehensively to the ideas submitted by Irish citizens.
She added that the decision to immediately action 17 specific ideas in the campaign will have a positive impact on Ireland, both economically and socially.
Other Government commitments, to analyse the feasibility of other ideas in the action plan and to carry out six-monthly implementation reviews, are also highly positive, she said.
When the campaign was launched, Aileen O’Toole received a commitment from An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD that the campaign’s action plan “would be fast-tracked to the Cabinet committee on Economic Renewal for assessment and implementation, where appropriate.”
The plan, which was published on 14 May, was considered in detail by the Cabinet committee and by government departments in advance of last week’s Cabinet decision on its implementation.
All the main political parties have endorsed the Ideas Campaign and have welcomed the recommendations made in the action plan, which was produced by a high-level Advisory Group comprising representatives from business, policy, academia, the arts and the voluntary sector.
Aileen O’Toole said that the Action Plan was not intended solely for Government to implement but also for business and voluntary organisations, as well as individuals.
The plan has been circulated to over 300 interested parties and has been extensively downloaded from the campaign website. The Ideas Campaign is aware that organisations, businesses and other parties have been reviewing the plan and taking steps to implement some of the ideas.
Implementation of the actions by the Government, organisations and businesses is a powerful endorsement of this independent citizens’ campaign to create ideas for economic recovery and to help stimulate a different type of national discussion about the Irish economy, Aileen O’Toole stated.
Over 5,000 ideas submitted as Phase Two begins
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009Phase two of the Ideas Campaign was launched this morning following a huge response by citizens to create ideas for Irish economic renewal and recovery.
A total of 5,284 ideas were submitted on our website between the campaign’s launch on 5 March and last night (31 March), the deadline for this phase of the campaign.
Traffic to the website approached almost 48,000 visits during the same period, with a typical visitor spending approximately 4.5 minutes on the site.
International interest in the campaign is also now considerable and represents 17% of traffic.
Policy, education, environmental initiatives and tourism were the top categories for ideas submitted. Three out of four ideas logged from overseas came from people born in Ireland.
Next phase
Action is the theme of phase two of the campaign, which involves:
- Devising an action plan for individuals, community and other groups and for Government based on the ideas submitted. This will be produced in April
- Continuing the dialogue and interaction with the many thousands of citizens who have shown an interest in this campaign
- Creating further awareness about the campaign, and particularly the ideas which have been received, both in Ireland and internationally
- Working with individuals and groups that share a common goal to help Irish economic renewal and recovery
“This is the start, not the end of the Ideas Campaign, which is independent and non-political,” said Campaign Director Aileen O’Toole.
“The response we have received shows that Irish people are creative, resourceful and want to focus on solutions to the economic problems.”
An expert Advisory Group has started the process of evaluating the ideas received, while four accountancy firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC) are assisting the campaign team to review and evaluate the ideas submitted.
Ideas Campaign on the Late Late Show
Saturday, March 28th, 2009
Late Late Show presenter Pat Kenny
The Ideas Campaign was featured on 27 March on The Late Late Show, Ireland’s most watched TV programme with an audience that reaches 90% of the Irish adult population.
Three citizens were interviewed in the audience about the ideas they had submitted to the campaign website. Fionnbar Walsh from Kerry spoke about his idea of replacing prefab buildings in new schools with new buildings which would be funded by local communities. He said that this would result in savings for the Exchequer.
Fionnbar Walsh
Many of the schools in the country which have been awaiting government funding for either their construction or renovation, have outline or defined planning permission and are currently using temporary rented facilities to tide them over until the government will approve construction. We need the communities where these projects are currently “approved” to invest in them. If 100 persons invest in the project with about €10,000 with a 1% share there is €1 million available for the project immediately. As a school in a local area with 100 investors offering the government the use of the facility, constructed, at a 7% cost to the government per annum, it will work out as cheap as or cheaper than the current rental cost for the temporary facilities currently in use. This project will also get some of the construction sector back in action and gain much needed revenue back into the economy.
- Fionnbar Walsh
Tess Kane said that she, and many other older citizens like her, who have lived through previous recessions would be prepared to give home-making skills classes to younger people.
Tess Kane
There are thousands of grannies and an older generation who have lived through recessions and hard times and survived. My idea is to get them together in their local communities and teach the younger wives, mothers and partners. This can be done on a voluntary basis and the benefits would be enormous to everyone:
1 How to serve up fantastic nutritional meals - all home made
2 Using leftovers: cooked potatoes - meat - vegetables, etc.
3 Local produce… growing it yourself
4 Home baking… i.e. when had you potato cake last?
- Tess Kane
Una Heaton from Limerick spoke of creating a new arts business to enable local artists to promote and sell their works.
Una Heaton
Our idea is that eight artists, sculptors, photographers and painters will form a group and set up their own art gallery and art school. Each artist in the group takes 100% on their work. Invited artists will pay 20% on each sale to the gallery, the gallery will be part-time staffed, with the group taking alternative weeks. Also within the building will be a tourist attraction, the Angela’s Ashes tour. The building used to be the Leamy School in Limerick where Frank McCourt went to school… I think this is a great opportunity for artists to display their work in a great environment. Art will always sell.
- Una Heaton
Aileen O'Toole
Campaign Director Aileen O’Toole was interviewed in studio about the citizens’ campaign and said that the response had been unbelievable, with “hundreds and now thousands of ideas” for economic renewal and recovery being posted to the campaign website.
She encouraged others to log their ideas on the site before next Tuesday, 31 March, the deadline for the submission of ideas.
The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan TD
Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for Energy Communications and Natural Resources, another guest on the show, praised the campaign as a medium to promote positive ideas for economic recovery.
Statement on Google Adwords
Friday, March 6th, 2009Aileen O’Toole, Campaign Director of the Ideas Campaign, expressed disappointment today that her name and that of the campaign had been bought as keywords on Google by Alan Kelly, a Labour candidate in the forthcoming European Election.
She said that her intention was and always will be that the Ideas Campaign is by citizens for citizens and was designed to be above party politics.
The Google AdWords campaign was no longer visible after this story was reported on the political site Politics.ie
Ideas Campaign on ‘Morning Ireland’
Friday, March 6th, 2009The Ideas Campaign was featured on this morning’s edition of RTÉ Radio 1’s flagship news programme “Morning Ireland”. Campaign director Aileen O’Toole talked about the campaign and the huge response since last night’s launch.
Listen to the interview on RTÉ’s website
Campaign launched to harness ideas for economic growth
Thursday, March 5th, 2009Press release
A national campaign was launched tonight on RTÉ’s Prime Time to seek people’s ideas to stimulate economic recovery and focus on solutions to Ireland’s serious economic problems.
Called The Ideas Campaign, this grassroots initiative is targeting the citizens of Ireland and asking them to propose innovative ideas to boost economic activity across key areas such as manufacturing, technology, construction, retail and education. But it’s not only about business - the Ideas Campaign also wants ideas for the arts, sport and voluntary and community activity that will enrich this country.
The campaign will run until 31 March and centres on a website - IdeasCampaign.ie - which went live today and which will:
- Capture citizens’ ideas across 19 different categories that are important to the Irish economy
- Allow them to send messages of support
- Provide easy-to-understand information about the Irish economy that is directly applicable to their lives
This is a citizens’ campaign, owned by people in Ireland. The campaign, and those who get involved, have to be practical and realistic, particularly in the light of the global economic crisis and the serious state of the government’s finances.
The Ideas Campaign plans to use the ideas received to deliver an action plan for Government in April with aggressive timelines for execution. An Advisory Group, comprising senior figures with experience in business, academia, economics and the public sector, is advising the campaign team and will have an input into the action plan to ensure that recommendations are both pragmatic and achievable.
The campaign arose from a contribution which businesswoman Aileen O’Toole made to the Prime Time special on the economy on 14 January. She spoke about positive aspects of Irish economic activity and the need to focus on solutions, not problems. This TV appearance met with a huge response which led Aileen O’Toole to establish this campaign less than three weeks ago.
The campaign is independent, non-political and has been modestly funded by Aileen O’Toole’s business, AMAS. It is being staffed by highly-qualified individuals who have been made redundant because of the recession and who are being supported by a network of volunteers, as well as AMAS’s Directors and staff.
“After Prime Time, people contacted me and agreed that we need to have different conversations about the Irish economy - about looking forward, about recognising positive developments in the economy and about capitalising on our qualities as an economy,” said Aileen O’Toole, explaining the genesis of the campaign. “At the very least, we’re hoping that this campaign will start those conversations.
“We’re calling on the people of Ireland to get involved. Visit the campaign website IdeasCampaign.ie, which will be updated every day. Log your ideas on the site. But even if you don’t have a big idea, don’t worry. You can still send us a message of support or read the content about the contributors or about the ideas and messages that are coming in from around the country.”
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