Ideas for recovery

redto

how about skinning or tanning politicians

Liam Byrne

optocynic wrote: »

That is actually an interesting idea. Doesn't the US pay 4bn a year to Cuba for Guantanamo?
Let's give them Limerick!

Not a hope, sunshine! The US shouldn't even be using Shannon.

Actually, since Dublin campaigned so strongly for the transatlantic flights that Shannon had, maybe we should give the US troops Dublin instead.....we have no need for it.

ilovesleep

Howabout chasing the vatican for compensation for all the scandalous abuse that went on with the christan brothers all those years ago. We were once a catholic country but people lost so much faith because of that.

Volvo ocean race is coming back to galway in 2012. Bring back the salthill airshow for that and put on one heck of show. We could have people flocking from all across europe to see it.

Drumpot

Totally off the wall Idea . . Not sure if its legal but sure might aswell throw it out . .

I call it the "Cead Mile Failte" festival.

Irish Government should be looking to get people into Ireland. Why not liase with the biggest music bands (artists) in the world and offer them money in return for free gigs throughout Ireland for a week (just to test out this idea).

The tickets for these bands are only available to people residing outside of Ireland (but are free). Once you can show evidence that you have booked accomodation around the time of the gig, you are entitled to apply for a ticket.

To make this event even bigger, make sure local organisers maximise its potential by having all sorts of festivals at the same time (get comedians to towns, etc) and try to make it a Cead Mile Failte festival (Ireland welcomes all).

It would be a tourist strategy (so no moaning from locals) and I think it could be a potentially lucrative deal (and should be done annually if successful) if it works out.

If its in the summer we should get the GAA involved and get them to allocate a couple of thousands of tickets to games to foreigners (again for free), to promote whatever is Irish.

We should get U2 to be the ambassadors of the programme. Doesnt matter what some people think of them or Bono, they are both loved the world throughout. I imagine they would do it for nothing if properly put to them!

The way I see it, we need to start giving people other reasons to come to Ireland. Surely the money spent in accomodation alone would easily cover any costs incurred by the state ?

LostinBlanch

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

Now that we are penniless road kill, after the Bond Market vigilantes drove over us Mad Max style as they chase down the Euro, we should perhaps look to other countries who have money to burn.

Offer a 25 year rent on Spike Island or the underused deep water facilities in Bantry Bay to the Chinese or Russian navy as their North Atlantic Base.

That should cause the loan sharks who have us by the short and curlies to relent and perhaps open up other more favourable 'Western' money channels to us.

I look forward with interest to future Wikileaks from the American Embassy in Dublin if we follow this course.

;-)

The Icelanders threatened something similar during their negotiations with the IMF etc and hey presto - money that wasn't going to be available to them suddenly became available.

Rob A. Bank

LostinBlanch wrote: »

The Icelanders threatened something similar during their negotiations with the IMF etc and hey presto - money that wasn't going to be available to them suddenly became available.

We provided Aeroflot with a refueling depot in Shannon when the old USSR was still very unpopular in western circles.

Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay has a history of being used as a military base.. so why not for the Russians or the Chinese ?

"In the last few months of World War I, Whiddy became the site of a US naval air station. The US Navy's Air Wing established a seaplane base on the western end of the island; this became operational on 25 September 1918 when the first two planes arrived. They patrolled an area around Fastnet. One of the planes crashed on the 22 October 1918, killing one airman. The base had an operational radio station receiving messages from as far away as the USA and Russia. Five planes were based in Whiddy. With the Armistice in November 1918 the rationale for maintaining it was ended and the station closed in January 1919."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiddy_Island

If the Russians or the Chinese Navy arrived in Bantry, not only would we have a few billion rent from them but the local B&Bs would do a roaring spy trade.

LostinBlanch

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

We provided Aeroflot with a refueling depot in Shannon when the old USSR was still very unpopular in western circles.

Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay has a history of being used as a military base.. so why not for the Russians or the Chinese ?

"In the last few months of World War I, Whiddy became the site of a US naval air station. The US Navy's Air Wing established a seaplane base on the western end of the island; this became operational on 25 September 1918 when the first two planes arrived. They patrolled an area around Fastnet. One of the planes crashed on the 22 October 1918, killing one airman. The base had an operational radio station receiving messages from as far away as the USA and Russia. Five planes were based in Whiddy. With the Armistice in November 1918 the rationale for maintaining it was ended and the station closed in January 1919."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiddy_Island

If the Russians or the Chinese Navy arrived in Bantry, not only would we have a few billion rent from them but the local B&Bs would do a roaring spy trade.

Thinking about it, I wouldn't have a foreign naval base in Bantry. we have our only fuel refinery at Whitegate there, so best to keep that seperate. I'd offer Killary harbour - plenty of deep water there. :cool:

Anyway, it's a good chip to have on the bargaining table. But I don't think it'd come to reality. Still how many things that we thought wouldn't happen have come to pass in the last year or two? :eek:

Rob A. Bank

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Thinking about it, I wouldn't have a foreign naval base in Bantry. we have our only fuel refinery at Whitegate there, so best to keep that seperate. I'd offer Killary harbour - plenty of deep water there. :cool:

Anyway, it's a good chip to have on the bargaining table. But I don't think it'd come to reality. Still how many things that we thought wouldn't happen have come to pass in the last year or two? :eek:

Agreed ! It seems like a win/win situation for us.... We get rent from the Russians/Chinese or we get more favorable money from the 'West'.

Killybegs is also a runner...

(BTW... Whitegate is in Cork Harbour... there are only oil storage tanks on Whiddy in Bantry Bay)

Rob A. Bank

We are seriously short of money at the moment… the government is behaving as if the Bond Market assholes or the IMF/EU loan-sharks are the only sources of money on the planet.

Some lateral thinking to by-pass them.

According to Wikipedia an estimated 80 million people worldwide claim some Irish descent; among them are 41 million Americans who claim "Irish" as their primary ethnicity.

Why not invite them to buy Irish Government bonds at zero interest to help the ‘old country’ out in its hour of need ?

The Russians and the Chinese are flush with money at the moment and I notice that the Portuguese foreign minister is in Bejing right now, trying to get the Chinese to buy Portuguese bonds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11987147

Could our foreign minister start knocking on doors in Moscow and Bejing ?

.

ISAW

zig wrote: »

^^as insane as that sounds there really is no flaws in that suggestion, although I think your billion a year intake may be a bit over optimistic.

So there are no flaws in suggesting the alternative to the problems which got Ireland and the rest of the world into economic difficulties id to encourage a culture which has gambling as a central paradigm rather than saving or investing? surely that was what caused the crash in the fiorst place so how do you see it as the miracle cure if it was a contributing factor?

ISAW

youcrazyjesus! wrote: »

It's important we identify and understand where the Government went wrong but we also need some realistic idea that any stale FF Government would never countenance due to the vested interests they still look after and the political way the govern this State and but any progressive, open minded Government would and could do so tomorrow.

There are two broad factors here:
1. What caused the world economic collapse?
2. What was particular to Ireland?

in addition there is

3. what was particular to FF that no other Parties would have countanced

for example one can suggest the liberitarian policies of the PD's (yes I know they were a small party but Charlie Mc Creevy basically had such a strategy and almost joined them at one stage) is a contributing factor. another might be the green insistance to spend say a billion on a global Warming policy.

Anyway I agree an analysis of what happened and why - the economic history - is worthwhile. It would seem the fact we trusted the Banks and still do is endemic to the problem.

Personally, I would like to see a new bank, heavily capitalised by the NPRF, giving out the loans that the current banks aren't even considering.

But if the banking system itself is at fault how is having just another bankgoing to fix that?
Take for example the Glass Steagall?? act on the US brought in after the 1939 crash. This was a Lawto regulate banking. buit by bit in the Regan and Bush Administrations this was reversed and high street banks and investment banks became able to operate together again . This basically caused the "derivatives" and "to big to fail " problem associated with 1 and 2 above.

WE have banks by the way which give out loans when the high street won't. WE call them credit unions. Ireland has a strong credit union system. their corporate model is totally different. There are no two million a year jobs and big bonuses and no investment shareholders.

We can't wait around for 10 years for banks to start lending again, people who can afford it who have a strong saving history and secure jobs should be given loans and mortgages.

And they ARE! There is as much or more good debt out there as there is bad debt. Hundreds of billions in mortgages are being paid off on year upon year. The question is though why should someone be paying a 500k mortgage if their house is worth ( well valued at) 300k? If and when these people default we will face a crisis much worse than the current one. But the important question to ask is where is the 500k they paid gone who has that money?

"Saving history" is a word that has no meaning today! Youing people look on a house computer or car as a four hundred or twenty or fifty a week and when they stop paying they don't have the house/car /computer anymore. they don't think "I am saving /paying a bit every week and in two/five/thirty years I will own that". They think "bank it on the card and whatever I can't pay for at the end of the month I wont have next month"


The above isn't an attack on you or young people and may be simplistic so pardon my directness or crude economics I don't pretend to understand economics.

If a business that has survived to date needs a modest overdraft facility, give it. It would do an unbelievable amount of good. It would
"only" be a few billion and even if it incurrsed losses it would be worth trying. Of course we would need a change to EU rules but it would
be a good way of improving the banks if good loans were transferred to private banks once it was established they were performing. And there
could be a facility to transfer it back if it wasn't. It's a much better use of it than signing ourselves up to a vicious debt cycle and wasting it. This
would be a NAMA for new loans basically.

already done for mortgages. Unlesss the banks are not telling about likely defaulters.
As for business again my crude economics

If a bank loans to business and mortages they are two different markets so they should be treated differently but let us just take the macro effect:

A bank pays interest at x per cent. It pays fat bonuses and paychecks to employees so it has to make all the salaries first to break even. this means it loans money at more then x per cent. say y and say the difference of x and y is delta usually x is small anywhere from one to five maybe so say x is two and y is five then delta is three.

Now if they put it all on a horse delta could be 300 but they could lose everything . so banks are meant to take safe bets. problem is that are lending with x at three and find out they can only get money to loan at eight. this means for their delta of three they need to lend at eleven. so in my "spinal tap" analysis you can get money but ther interest "goes all the way to eleven"

Not only that but the "non gamblers" ( if they exist) have HUGE funds (pension funds and the like) and they have to get more than x on that fund or the fund decreases ( and people will ask why they are pulling 100k plus a year on a fund for themselves when it is continually going down Mind you they never asked that when it was increasing - but in fact I did and people laughed at me).

decriminalising and legalising marijuana/cannabis and decriminalising other drugs. Free up legal system, take in lots of tax, employ people in
the distribution of it, reduce gangland murders. It could be worth 500 million a year through various savings.

So you make an economic argument on moral issues?
Sure why not employ the "immodest proposal" of Swift?
I mean welfare costs for the poor are huge! Why not get the poor to eat their own children? then you save on health and welfare and child allowance. It is immoral but it pays the bills. Or why not put children into prostitution and take them out of costly schools?
Point being you may see how economics isn't sufficient to justify doing something wrong.

Encouraging drugs gambling and prostitution isn't necessarily solving anything. Iot may in fact be creating even bigger problems.

Allowing Shannon Airport to run independently to Dublin. ... Dublin Airport is going to lose money no matter what there is no point in strangling the rest of the country for its' sake. We should also subsidise hotel rooms and car hires via tax breaks

We also did that! And shannon is falling on it's face! Dublin won't fail before shannon. Shannon is only there because post WWII going across the Atlantic was a big trip. in fact Dublin brings in much more tourists and business to Ireland. shannon is small potatoes. But yes I agree it should be encouraged.

We desperately need to grow the economy and start reducing unemployment. Tourism is one area we can grow quickly imo and we could start doing it tomorrow with the right Government.

the economy is healthy! Exports tourism etc. are all growing. We just consume quite a lot and the big problem is a huge debt!
And back to 3 - how is FG or Lab going to do anything different? there isn't anything wrong with transport tourism etc. in the macro sense. and even a government is small on this scale. They have maybe one or two pervent of public finances to play with . the public service has the other 98. I mean you are talking big issues like restructuring. I dont mean paying off higher public servants to relocate. I mean taking FAS Education and Enterprise and gutting the whole thing and making it work by putting brains banks and brawn together.

ISAW

meboloxitis wrote: »

This subject has often come up at home & here are a few good ones we have talked about:

Legalise Prostitution:

[irony]

Yeah and gladiatorial combat. Save on having to pay for them. Whay not Allow successful gladiators to beat prostitutes to death to save on bills as well?

Legalise Cannabis:

Yeah and cannibalism. You know it makes you hungry? Well why not get the poor to eat their own children like Johnathan Swift Suggested.

Generic Brand Medicine: Country is flat broke and HSE simply cannot afford the "brand name" medicince distributed.

Tricky - considering pharmachem is currently the largest export sector we have.

There is a cheaper alternative with exact same ingredients which do the exact same job but the government doesnt have the balls to go up against big pharmacutical.

Yup. Because the big pharma people invested seven years into say Viagra and can produce it anywhere. You want us to tell them to leave?

Illegal Migrant Workers: Immigration needs to start looking into non EU workers working illegally in this country. The majority of non EU nationals working in Ireland are on student visa's and are working beyond 20 hours per week.

But your "legalise prostution" encourages this since the illegal prostitutes would still exist and would be mostly foreign migrants.

Cut Ministers Pensions: not in my life time anyway...

[/quote]

See my Galdiator comments above.

[/irony]

ISAW

vintac34 wrote: »

Cap all salaries and professional fees to a maximum of EU average.

and lose money? EU public servants are on higher pay and conditions than Irish ones.

Cap all state pensions at EU average max.

Ditto! and what if we drop and the average raised ? more losses!

Abolish the Seanad and put money towards running a hospital.

Ok no House of experts to oversee and edit legislation or to raise East Timor or other fringe human rights issues.

And save what? 60 senators on 50k plus the same in staff ~ say 5 million a year. You will get what - ten consultants - for that?. No nurses no doctors no porters no drivers just the ten consultants. Not much of a hospital is it?

Or you could get one university head and two senior admin about 750 K
ten mid admin - 800 k
ten network administratoes - 500k
five sports people -250k

two professors -300k
five senior lecturers - 500k
twenty lecturers -1.6 million

twenty lesser admin - 700k

thats about 5.4 million not much more than a rough seanads woirth.
and you have a new college with 27 possible teachers yu should be able to take in 1000 students ( Trinity have about 400 academics and 14,000 stuydents)

at 2 k a piece that's oops - four million! Ah well we can always get a million and a half from the tax payer. who would ever thing we need to increase fees to 3k?

Slash the number of TDs [ 50 would be more than enough!]

good on ya! Why don't you get elected and you can do that then?
sure why not get rid of all of them and appoint you instead?

Sarcasm aside and WHAT basis do you thing 50 TD's are enough? Maybe you are right but can you justify it?

Slash the number of County/city/town Councellors by 75%.

So what about 200 councillors for the whole country? You thin 12 councillors are enough for the whole of Dublin City?

Sure why not have none?

Cut out all the junkets at public expense i.e how they empty bins in tokyo or such like.

So we should have no "best practice" and just make it up as we go along?
Networking of business should not happen?

ISAW

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

We could save 700m a year by dropping Irish from the school curriculum.

[irony]
and we could save billions by dropping all education altogether!

Since, the net economic effect of current Irish language teaching is negligable, there would be no impact on employabilty or competiveness.

Likewise for occupational therapists for disabled people.

Let anyone who wants to learn Irish, learn from volunteers and enthusiasts.

Yeah and cripples can teach themselves to walk and kids learn for themselves how to read. and we can give up soccer and GAA and only all play a single the one world sport ( whatever someone else decides that sport to be) so we save money on new stadiums.

{/irony]

ricman

Setup a website, listing prices for services by doctors and dentists ,price for checkup, filling,prescription, etc so people can compare prices before they go.
let nama give say 40 hotels to communitys who can convert them to new schools, take away government subsidys for private schools.
Tax all government pensions over 50k at 60 per cent rate.
convert 20 hotels into community centres, or centres for young people to go to for sports or other activitys.Close down the seanad, transfer it to the civil service for office space.
Transfer thousands of apartments from nama to local authoritys ,they rent them out to people on the housing list. IT reduces rent allowance bill.
Have special tax allowances for gaming companys , like canada does.

ilovesleep

Im just after finding out in after hours that bogland is ideal for growing cranberries. Theres a business idea for someone.

tenchi-fan

Lethal injection for hardened criminals. It would save €100,000 per year per criminal.

Scrap social welfare. If people paid contributions during their useful working life they will receive a payment. Everyone else, apart from those born with a disability, can rely on charity. No more cars, mobile phones or takeaways.
Cheap contraception pills for teenage girls. If they still get pregnant their options are a trip to the UK or put it up for adoption. The free ride's over.

City centre congestion charges. Either take public transport or prepare to pay €10 to enter the city centre. And yes, that's in addition to motorway tolls.

Fire every single city/county councillor and TD. Pay another country to administer our country instead. No more crooked FF donations either.

Deport anyone who arrive in Ireland in the last 15 years whose welfare claims exceed their tax payments.

TV3 is the new national broadcaster. They receive a grant to run T Na G and the national orchestra. RTE are abolished and must exist on an entirely commercial basis.

Selective defaulting based on a cost-benefit analysis. It might actually be worth defaulting on part of our debt.

hoser expat

Call home the Irish diaspora, specifically the retired diaspora, or any retired person who wants to live here.

Think about it, retired people generally have money, will buy houses, pay their own medical, buy groceries etc., and don't take jobs from other people. I know loads of fairly wealthy retired people from Canada (my home country) who would love to retire to Ireland, but there is no such thing as a retiree visa.

The USA is totally missing the boat on this one too. All of those empty houses in Florida would be snapped up by retirees if they could only get a visa to let them live there legally.

Ireland has never tapped into the diaspora to any great extent.

RichardAnd

Lethal injection for hardened criminals. It would save €100,000 per year per criminal.

I agree, though I wouldn't go to the expense of the injection when one rope can hang hundreds cheaply.

Cheap contraception pills for teenage girls. If they still get pregnant their options are a trip to the UK or put it up for adoption. The free ride's over.

Cheap contraception is already available. There are places where you can get condoms for free so that's not the problem. The problem is a total lack of responsibility and, as you point out, the knowledge that the state will sort things out if that tryst behind the bike shed is blessed. In addition to our fiscal irresponsibility, it's blatantly apparent many young irish are incapable of thinking once their pants come off.

Fire every single city/county councillor and TD. Pay another country to administer our country instead. No more crooked FF donations either.

This is such an absurd comment I'm not going to editorialise it.

TV3 is the new national broadcaster. They receive a grant to run T Na G and the national orchestra. RTE are abolished and must exist on an entirely commercial basis.

This I agree with. I would LOVE to shut down RTE and be free of their moronic dramas, condescending presenters, dreadful soaps and above all, bias and convoluted "journalism". We don't need a national broadcaster part funded by the state when, in this age of digital TV, we can choose from hundred of quality channels. RTE is a dinosaur being propped up by the state.

EastTexas

ilovesleep wrote: »

something very small that may be worth exploring. it may help pubs to remain open. the idea is to allow dogs in pubs. im serious too. so many times i felt like a drink or two but people arent there anymore to go out. so you could take the dog for walkies and stop in at the local for a drink or two. it may even attract wealthy americans who wish to holiday with their pets.

That’s a good one and cute too.:)
I like it.
At least leave it up to the owners of the pubs if they see merit in this.
And also apply that spirit elsewhere.
I don’t to which extent the Irish government imposes restrictions and red tape on private enterprise, but doing away with as much as possible, especially for small business would help and could lift spirits in general.

Nody

RichardAnd wrote: »

Cheap contraception is already available. There are places where you can get condoms for free so that's not the problem. The problem is a total lack of responsibility and, as you point out, the knowledge that the state will sort things out if that tryst behind the bike shed is blessed. In addition to our fiscal irresponsibility, it's blatantly apparent many young irish are incapable of thinking once their pants come off.

That is not in any way limited to the young or the Irish however...

EastTexas

maxwell smart wrote: »

Build a super casino near Shannon airport. Aim it at Americans on the east coast and fellow Europeans. Make it as glitzy and tacky as a Vegas hotel and watch the money roll in. I reckon a billion for construction, maybe 2500 jobs when up and running and another billion a year in income for the state. Get private companies to build it. We would have a queue of them.

Don’t make it tacky but an Irish theme park like, like perpetual Saint Patrick's Day…just kidding
People all over the world proudly claim to be of Irish ancestry.
Make it classy and fun in a beautiful green Irish setting, rolling hills and golf club, hiking, sports….something for everyone.
Provide accommodations for the very rich (even a little airport just for private jets), but also for the not so well of willing to save for a trip of a life time to the old country.
Not just gambling but also an Irish cultural center.
After it’s built make deal with the airlines for cut rate flights from all over, if you book this as your destination, especially from the states.
Good for the airlines and the casino.
Capitalism at it's best! Yeah!



Only slight problem I see, if the locals start taking to gambling, increasing personal bankruptcies.
You know the house always wins in the end.

kuntboy

RichardAnd wrote: »

I agree, though I wouldn't go to the expense of the injection when one rope can hang hundreds cheaply.

Expected different from you, instead of such a callous statement.

RichardAnd

kuntboy wrote: »

Expected different from you, instead of such a callous statement.

Hardly. I may have made a series of somewhat altruistic posts in recent weeks but whilst I have the greatest sympathy for those on hard times I have none for rapists and murderers who get such light sentences thus, I am an advocate of the death penalty and ever shall be. If someone rapped my daughter or murdered my son, I would like nothing more than to see the scum done away with in a permanent manner so that he might never harm another soul.

Also, I would point out that hanging is not a callous way to execute someone. The lethal injection, whilst commonly believed to be painless and swift, is not as assured a method of termination. No one knows what happens to a person dying in such a manner and if the sequence of drugs being administered incorrectly, it's entirely possible that the condemned might be paralysed but conscious as he dies from lack of oxygen.

Hanging, if done correctly, brings about death in a matter of seconds. Albert Pierpoint was able have a man dead within 15 seconds after blindfolding him. It's quick, painless for the individual in question, economical for the state and Pierpoint himself considered it to be the most humane method of execution.

I'm not suggestion criminals be hanged drawn and quartered. Dangerous men and women need to be dealt with in a permanent manner and locking them away for life is woefully expensive and arguably worse for the condemned than a swift end on the gallows as it would force them to languish in a cell for years on end.

EastTexas

RichardAnd wrote: »

Hardly. I may have made a series of somewhat altruistic posts in recent weeks but whilst I have the greatest sympathy for those on hard times I have none for rapists and murderers who get such light sentences thus, I am an advocate of the death penalty and ever shall be. If someone rapped my daughter or murdered my son, I would like nothing more than to see the scum done away with in a permanent manner so that he might never harm another soul.

Also, I would point out that hanging is not a callous way to execute someone. The lethal injection, whilst commonly believed to be painless and swift, is not as assured a method of termination. No one knows what happens to a person dying in such a manner and if the sequence of drugs being administered incorrectly, it's entirely possible that the condemned might be paralysed but conscious as he dies from lack of oxygen.

Hanging, if done correctly, brings about death in a matter of seconds. Albert Pierpoint was able have a man dead within 15 seconds after blindfolding him. It's quick, painless for the individual in question, economical for the state and Pierpoint himself considered it to be the most humane method of execution.

I'm not suggestion criminals be hanged drawn and quartered. Dangerous men and women need to be dealt with in a permanent manner and locking them away for life is woefully expensive and arguably worse for the condemned than a swift end on the gallows as it would force them to languish in a cell for years on end.

OT, on this thread, but I hope it’s Ok for me to weigh in on this since you brought it up.

The Paradox of the Death Penalty.
As many of you probably know, we have the DP in Texas.
Because of the lengthy appeals process, years, frequently up to and over a decade, this provides no closure but only limbo and further suffering for the relatives of the victim(s) and the condemned alike during that time.
Without the Appeals process, this would be nothing more than a lynching and not inline with the values of any civilized nation and people.
Moreover, on occasion some have had their sentences commuted to "life" or even been released with the onset of DNA, or people coming forward with new information, proven someone innocent after all or not solely responsible for the crime committed or even mitigating circumstances previously not known.

More often then not, this lengthy appeals process in a death penalty case for the purpose of fairness is more costly than simply commuting the sentence to “life” and keeping the person locked up.
Meaning, even if you are emotionally for the Death Penalty, it is not fiscally prudent.
Unless you want to go back to the dark ages and lynching.

djpbarry

Nolanger wrote: »

If they close down the aircraft systems industry that existed here up to 2009 (SR Technics) and make 1,130 highly skilled people in this area unemployed what is the point in training people for an Aircraft Systems degree when the jobs have gone from this country?

Way to avoid the question. There are few jobs in Ireland at present beyond the chemical/pharma & software/IT industries – why are people studying to do anything else?

Slozer wrote: »

There was an awful lot of regulation set up since we joined the EU that has strangled two of our greatest assets, our agriculture and our fisheries.

Strangled? I think not. Irish farmers and fishermen have been in receipt of substantial subsidies since Ireland joined the EU. Take away those subsidies and watch the Irish beef industry (for example) get wiped out overnight by cheaper produce from the likes of Brazil and Argentina.