I have only just heard about Claiming our Future today, and unfortunately the event is fully subscribed. I would have loved to have been able to join all you guys, it is great to see so many ideas and people coming together for our nation rather than self interest.
Since I cannot be there in person I thought I would stick all my ideas in one post in the hope that some of them may be useful. I put them under three headings, Political Reform Ideas, Economic Ideas, Protest Idea. I put a final idea at the end.

Political Reform Ideas(Out of our control)
Abolish Councils: I think that all of the town and county councils should be abolished and replaced with 4 councils, Dublin, Leinster, Munster, Connaught + Donegal. Ireland is a small nation and it is overrun by bureaucracy, less bodies means a more integrated approach and less waste and would bring savings through economies of scale.

Centralized Planning: Land zoning & town planning should be done centrally by government. Towns planning themselves creates problem where Athlone has a shopping centre believing that people as far as Tullamore and Mullingar will also shop there. However Tullamore also builds a shopping centre believing that people from Athlone will shop there. Central planning stops this nonsensical overlap.

We Elect Our Leader: TDs have no eyes on getting re-elected and give the odd glance at national issues when pushed by outside forces such as the media or the EU. That is just a fact of life. Rather than try and fix the TDs take national issues away from them. Reform the division of power in the state so that we directly elect a President to run the country like the American system. Then the President would choose the best & brightest to fill ministerial roles. So instead of shoehorning elected TDs into ministerial roles they have no background in, we can have specialists in every area. For example, I would prefer David McWilliams as a Minister for Finance as he was an economist rather than Brian Lenihan who was a Barrister, (this is not a swipe at Lenihan, just making a point). Every four years the President is directly answerable to us all and cannot rely on their local constituency to return them to government.

Public Finances: The current system of guessing future tax receipts and basing spending on those guesses and borrowing to make up the difference makes little sense. It means that Ireland will be forever in debt and our grandchildren will still be paying for the services we enjoy today. For 5 years take 20% out of public spending each year until we have saved what amounts to about a years worth of public funds. Then in year 6 spend the saved funds on running the country while saving the taxes from year 6 to pay for year 7 etc etc. This means that we will not be basing forecasts on what we hope the economy will do next year. We will be basing forecasts on what we have to spend in the savings account for spending next year. We could repeat the process for a number of years so that we have budgets for 5 years ahead saved and account for, rather than the mere 1 year I have mentioned. It would take a generation, but it would mean that our children have a country on a sounder economic footing as they could only spend in a year what was saved for that year.

Expenses & Seminars: On average councillors around the country claimed about €30,000 per annum on expenses. Much of this was spent on seminars, including mileage and hotels. One could obtain an MBA in one year in Trinity for €29,500. I would prefer to see our councillors all having masters level educations than continually spend money on endless conferences. Rather than having all these seminars, why not have a two year “Elected Official Diploma”, anybody wanting to run for elected office would have to complete a 2 year part time diploma which teaches them about things like Economics, Irish & International History, Law, Sociology, Political Science as well as what they need to know on a practical level to do their jobs. If you cannot pass the exams you aren’t up to a standard to represent others.

Government Cars: Why do we supply our minsters with Mercs? What has Mercedes to do with Ireland? All government cars should be Ford. Henry Ford’s father came from Ireland which makes Henry Ford an Irishman in my eyes and I think we should support our own.

Foreign Travel: When traveling abroad our representatives should find a place owned by an Irishman and stay there. Even if that means when visiting New York or Washington that a minister must stay in a B&B. We should send a message that we support our own rather than trying to look flash staying in 5 star hotels and running up massive bills for the taxpayer to pay.

FAS: All courses run by FAS should be modular. Many course run by FAS start in September/October and finish in May. Individuals cannot choose when to lose their jobs and in many cases have to wait until the following year for retraining. FAS courses should run all year round and be organised in modules so that you can join at any point and begin completing modules. This would mean that people can go straight from unemployment into meaningful training programs to get re-educated and back into the workforce.

Economic Ideas (Within our control)
I think that a healthy start up sector is vital for long term economic prospects. We cannot rely on American multinationals to keep choosing Ireland over other cheaper and just as well educated options.

Start Up Discounts:Get businesses to offer discounts on their products/services to companies less than 2 years old. While they might not make much money from doing this in the short term, in the long term these start ups can grow to bigger companies employing many people which will help with the overall economy. Remember a rising tide lifts all boats. We could set up a website listing companies willing to discount for start ups, so there is a central place of procurement for start ups to go to when looking for services they need in the early days.

Start up/Established Company Pairing: Many companies have laid off staff and have empty offices & desks in their offices. Why not ask them to allow start ups, which are often 1-3 people, to use those empty spaces. The people behind the established business can offer the space as well as provide mentoring and advice to the start up.
Also the companies could be paired as an entity. Start ups generally lose money initially, then reach break even, then profit. If companies are within a group the losses from one can be offset against the tax liability of another. So maybe there is some way for this to become tax efficient for the established company? Would need to chat with an accountant, I’m just throwing it out there.

Investment: Right now businesses are suffering because they cannot access funds. So rather than rely on banks, why can simply bypass them. Set up a central website whereby start ups or established businesses can do a presentation on how much they need, what their business is about, and when they will pay the money back. Then individuals can go online and loan them the needed money. For example a company needs €10,000 investment. They pitch on the website, and then 100 people can each pay €100 to invest and then the company pays them back with interest, save for example 5%. Or for a riskier investments maybe the interest can be made higher.

Protest Idea (Within our control)
I don’t mean to cause offense but protests happen all the time and I don’t think they have much impact. But if a protest happens from this event then I think it should be different to have an impact. Global media isn’t going to pay much attention to another protest unless it has a theme. I suggest a Reverse Broken Windows Theory. The Broken Windows Theory basically at it’s lowest levels boils down to combating civil disobedience. The idea is that if a person sees a building with broken windows he is more likely to break a window than if the building had no windows broken. It is elegantly simply and makes perfect sense. So protest an Inverse Broken Windows Theory by breaking a single window of the Dail, this makes a statement that we are no longer willing to give obedience. Also such a protest would make international news and it is through media that protests work. Also breaking one makes a political point, smashing loads would just be vandalism and I wouldn’t advocate that.

Final Idea (Within our control)
I know that the point of the event is not to start a political party, but I think if there ever was a place to start one it would be at this event. Nobody who will be there next week is doing so out of greed or self interest or political aspirations. So isn’t it the best place to find the next batch of political leaders? Our current system harks back to the foundation of the state with lines been drawn along things that happened when very few of us were alive and none of us were directly involved in. A new party would be a fresh start, and God knows we need it.

I hope something meaningful comes from this event and I think it can lend a voice to people by bringing them together. Together we have a voice and together we can begin to make the changes needed in Ireland today. Sitting back waiting for government won’t do it, getting up and making things happen will.