What should politicians/policy makers do to fix the country?

steddyeddy

So when it comes time for them to canvas at your door in in your area exactly what issues will you raise with them? The issues I will raise are as below and In my view are standing in the way of the county's recovery.

• The party whip system (as used here) is undemocratic to say the least
• Politician's expenses
• Gangsters like you Lowry still being part of Fine Gael
• We need a system of education like Finland's and to ensure standardised testing we need to malke all schools private schools, get rid of private schools or bring all schools up to the same level.
• I don't like the ad hominem attacks Enda makes every time he is asked a stragtforward question!

I also think we should be very wary of student politics but that's another story.

wretcheddomain

I'd bring up the long-term unemployed who abuse the welfare system inside out as a lifestyle choice and instruct said politicians to impose harsher penalties and stricter protocols to ensure it can't be a lifestyle choice any more.

stimpson

Resign.

Celly Smunt

Maybe promote training and education for the unemployed rather than cut the likes of BTEA every year,and maybe stop increasing the bloody student contribution for 3rd level fees.Theres no point having a free education system you have to pay for,bring in a loan system open to everybody or have it free for all.

steddyeddy

Celly Smunt wrote: »

Maybe promote training and education for the unemployed rather than cut the likes of BTEA every year,and maybe stop increasing the bloody student contribution for 3rd level fees.Theres no point having a free education system you have to pay for,bring in a loan system open to everybody or have it free for all.

This! Education should be promoted bigtime in this country. More educated people would attract more industry in conjunction with our low corporate tax rates.

xpletiv

The current generation, as in the 18-30 bracket, are amongst the best educated and intelligent people on the planet. We have been lucky to have an excellent education through primary, secondary, and college levels of schooling, much, much more than the generation before us, and probably better than the generation to follow due to our cuts and debts. So as radical as it seems, I believe that all politicians over the age of 40, with no third level education, be immediately terminated from the government. This is because they have little or no clue about what the country needs. We can see this through the cuts towards education and yet investment in multinational corporation.

Indiginous companies need to be generated. Start giving much, much better tax breaks to irish companies than to the MNCs. Otherwise, continue to see our best and brightest emigrate to other countries that give better offers. This generation is well educated and international; when we see some opportunity internationally, we are more likely to go for it due to the poor chances here.

Expenses - cut them all. We, as the working people of Ireland, should not be paying these people for cushy lives, which they have. There is no excuse and I believe that the Irish people (yes, you me and all) are as much to blame for letting it get to this stage. Cap at 100k and no other expenses. Nothing. Everything comes out their own pocket; see smaller B&Bs and cheaper hotels suddenly start to get more business due to politicians have to spend their own money. Got to open a school in Galway Enda? Get a bus or drive yourself; no helicopter or private driver. These people are just people; they should not have been allowed to get on this pedistal, especially seen as how poor a job has been done in the last few years.

Dole - Cut off after 6 months if no work is found for 1 month. Saves a bundle and will get people back working. Be more forceful; dont reduce the amount, because thats at its tether already, but reduce the amount of time in a row that people can claim it. People are lazy; get a job in Tesco or a bar or something for wages. Staying on the dole for 2 and 3 years+ is inexcusable.

Party Whip system - agree with above. Abolish, makes a mockery of democracy.

Keep drink cheap, dont increase smokes any more. These are tough ones for people to deal with; we need something in these troubled times. There are particular other substances that could be legalised to generate money as well and I think Ireland is ready for this. We are an intelligent population; we can make our own decisions.

Diplomacy - Stop being so darn cowardly. Play more hardball with Europe.

Banks - No more bank bailouts. Bring those responsible to trial. No more cowardice.

hatrickpatrick

I'll get attacked for this but I'mma say it anyway: The economic and financial system needs to be completely burned to the ground from top to bottom and redesigned. I don't just mean reformed, I mean fundamentally redesigned. The concept of debt = money creation and fractional reserve banking repeatedly get us into these ridiculous artificially imposed messes - there's no physical scarcity nor shortage of labour, the only issue is an artificial concept which doesn't work. That's bonkers. It needs to go.

Those with the power to create currency should not also have a vested interest in making money from it. Banking should be a public service and not a for profit enterprise, until this happens we will continue to have an unfair society and we will continue to have repeated economic crashes. What do you think causes the boom and bust cycle exactly?

Seedy Arling

steddyeddy wrote: »

So when it comes time for them to canvas at your door in in your area exactly what issues will you raise with them? The issues I will raise are as below and In my view are standing in the way of the county's recovery.

• The party whip system (as used here) is undemocratic to say the least
• Politician's expenses
• Gangsters like you Lowry still being part of Fine Gael
• We need a system of education like Finland's and to ensure standardised testing we need to malke all schools private schools, get rid of private schools or bring all schools up to the same level.
• I don't like the ad hominem attacks Enda makes every time he is asked a stragtforward question!

I also think we should be very wary of student politics but that's another story.

Harakiri.

Celly Smunt

xpletiv wrote: »

Dole - Cut off after 6 months if no work is found for 1 month. Saves a bundle and will get people back working. Be more forceful; dont reduce the amount, because thats at its tether already, but reduce the amount of time in a row that people can claim it. People are lazy; get a job in Tesco or a bar or something for wages. Staying on the dole for 2 and 3 years+ is inexcusable.

.

430000 odd thousand jobs aren't going to magically appear from cutting people off the dole,Cutting people won't work

People seem to think that dole money magically disappears off the face of the earth once its in the hands of a recipient.It doesn't,its circulated back into the economy and gives spending power to a quarter of irelands population,take that away and you've just excluded billions which could've been circulated.Leave the dole,but promote progressive alternatives such as education and PROPER internship placements.


P.S at least 23% of all dole money is put back into revenue.

BraziliaNZ

Ultra Socialism and a focus on inner peace instead of materialism being the objective of life

steddyeddy

Seedy Arling wrote: »

Harakiri.

I take it you refer to the ritual suicide? Care to elaborate?

ScumLord

We need a complete overhaul of absolutely everything. Our government, our law system and our education system are from a different era and unsuitable for the modern world.

I'd start with the education system, I don't think we've produced people that can deal with the problem, we need a new breed of people coming out of our schools that can do the job.

Park Royal

Perhaps part of the fixing would be an amnesty to all politicians who admit to

their taking of back handers....a national reconciliation by crooked politicians

who declare who gave them the back handers under what circumstances and

who refund such monies to the state......with a commitment to stand

witness against the persons involved in criminal cases the DPP may take.

V4Voluntary

The establishment parties can't do anything because their very survival depends on keeping the present system intact.

Jaysus I thought public opinion was a bit further along than this...

Artful_Badger

Whatever David Norris wants before he burns the whole place to the ground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51fGHV6ViAk

LeinsterDub

More free cheese

bnt

stimpson wrote: »

Resign.

Seedy Arling wrote: »

Harakiri.

To be replaced with ... what?

Like the UK, Ireland has an unelected Civil Service which actually runs the country, while interchangeable politicians strut and fret their hour upon the stage. A change in the politicians would not change how the country is run: that would require changes to the law, which is a bit more complicated.

Really fundamental changes would require changes to the Constitution. For Ireland to become a Communist State, for example, you'd have to repeal Articles 40-44. Good luck with that. :rolleyes:

Dyr

wretcheddomain wrote: »

I'd bring up the long-term unemployed who abuse the welfare system inside out as a lifestyle choice and instruct said politicians to impose harsher penalties and stricter protocols to ensure it can't be a lifestyle choice any more.

this is why you'll never see change in Ireland. Curtain twitchers who don't care about being robbed of billions so long as that layabout bollix in number 24 isn't getting one over them.

The J Stands for Jay

xpletiv wrote: »

I believe that all politicians over the age of 40, with no third level education, be immediately terminated from the government. This is because they have little or no clue about what the country needs.

This is a great idea. So many of these TDs are idiots ans proud of it.

A0

Should better control immigration
Should be more pragmatic
Should know how to manage budgets
Should be less compliant with social welfare policies
Should be able to organise a system and set rules
Abide by the laws and encourage the population to do so (in other words, less corruption)

Dostoevsky

A guy named Tom Darcy on RTÉ News Now just said that, and I do quote, "97 years ago Constantin Markievicz gave up his life in the park over there" (pointing to Stephen's Green)

Yes, his life. I was sure Constance Markievicz, who was a woman, was not killed in the Easter Rising but instead died at home peacefully in 1927 at the age of 59.

Moral of the story: politicians/policy makers need to invest much more money in education, especially historical education.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

xpletiv wrote: »

The current generation, as in the 18-30 bracket, are amongst the best educated and intelligent people on the planet. We have been lucky to have an excellent education through primary, secondary, and college levels of schooling, much, much more than the generation before us, and probably better than the generation to follow due to our cuts and debts. So as radical as it seems, I believe that all politicians over the age of 40, with no third level education, be immediately terminated from the government. This is because they have little or no clue about what the country needs. We can see this through the cuts towards education and yet investment in multinational corporation.

Sorry, but no. The irish education system does not make you intellligent. Far from it - it just makes you good at passing exams. The ecuation system needs a massive overhaul to get rid of compulsory subjects and end this ****e of spending massive amoutns of time learning **** you'll never need and have ni interest int.

Indiginous companies need to be generated. Start giving much, much better tax breaks to irish companies than to the MNCs. Otherwise, continue to see our best and brightest emigrate to other countries that give better offers. This generation is well educated and international; when we see some opportunity internationally, we are more likely to go for it due to the poor chances here.

This is a good idea, but you need to also fix the problem that a lot of people leave Ireland for other reasons than economic.

Expenses - cut them all. We, as the working people of Ireland, should not be paying these people for cushy lives, which they have. There is no excuse and I believe that the Irish people (yes, you me and all) are as much to blame for letting it get to this stage. Cap at 100k and no other expenses. Nothing. Everything comes out their own pocket; see smaller B&Bs and cheaper hotels suddenly start to get more business due to politicians have to spend their own money. Got to open a school in Galway Enda? Get a bus or drive yourself; no helicopter or private driver. These people are just people; they should not have been allowed to get on this pedistal, especially seen as how poor a job has been done in the last few years.

Agree mostly, but no caps. No expense limits. You pay for something? You submit a receipt and get it reimbursed. Same as all businesses. If it's deemed frivilous, reject the receipt.

Dole - Cut off after 6 months if no work is found for 1 month. Saves a bundle and will get people back working. Be more forceful; dont reduce the amount, because thats at its tether already, but reduce the amount of time in a row that people can claim it. People are lazy; get a job in Tesco or a bar or something for wages. Staying on the dole for 2 and 3 years+ is inexcusable.

Not thought through: this will only work if we have 100% (or close to it) employment. The idea that peiple who arent working are "lazy" is self-serving bull****. Plenty of people - especially those in their 40s and 50s - actively want to work but can't get jobs.

Party Whip system - agree with above. Abolish, makes a mockery of democracy.

Plus one.

Keep drink cheap, dont increase smokes any more. These are tough ones for people to deal with; we need something in these troubled times. There are particular other substances that could be legalised to generate money as well and I think Ireland is ready for this. We are an intelligent population; we can make our own decisions.

Seriously? You just said **** people on the dole for a month! How about we tripel the tax on cigs and put it into back to work schemes?

Diplomacy - Stop being so darn cowardly. Play more hardball with Europe.

Banks - No more bank bailouts. Bring those responsible to trial. No more cowardice.

Not really in our hands.

Scrap transition year.
Irish compulsory to Junior Cert only. 14 years of compulsory Irish has not created a nation of Irish speakers.
Introduce a proper IT program at second level. An ECDL or equivalent completed at Junior Cert level would be far more useful than an A in religion.
2 years mandatory national service for children who drop out of school at 16.
Introduce college fees with 50% discounts for students who obtain 2.1s and no fee for students who obtain a 1.1.

Stop grants for things like shop signs in Irish where you go into said shop and not one employee can speak Irish.
Scrap child benefit. Introduce generous tax credits for working families with children 12 and under.
Cut the dole for those who have been on it longer than 2 years consecutively.

Limit the number of terms a TD can serve.
Benchmark TD's wages against their previous employment.
Get rid of Ministers for State. We don’t need a Minister of Sport whose credentials for the job appears to be attending a marathon of funerals.
All expenses incurred by TD's should be processed through a central payment system. An easy system to set up.
Allow emigrants a postal vote in the first general election after they have left.

Join the Commonwealth. I know the historical argument against this but it will give us a biennial opportunity to develop relations with Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We are closer to Sydney than Stockholm.

MOC88

QUALITY MANAGEMENT, is it delivering required services in an efficient manner? Yes - then no problem, if it isn't make it efficient...

garhjw

Put the trade unions in their place. They played a massive part in the downfall of this country along with politicians and "bankers". F*cking socialists..... It doesnt work

Red Kev

steddyeddy wrote: »

So when it comes time for them to canvas at your door in in your area exactly what issues will you raise with them? The issues I will raise are as below and In my view are standing in the way of the county's recovery.

• The party whip system (as used here) is undemocratic to say the least
• Politician's expenses
• Gangsters like you Lowry still being part of Fine Gael
  
  He isn't a member of FG
  
• We need a system of education like Finland's and to ensure standardised testing we need to malke all schools private schools, get rid of private schools or bring all schools up to the same level.
• I don't like the ad hominem attacks Enda makes every time he is asked a stragtforward question!

I also think we should be very wary of student politics but that's another story.

xpletiv wrote: »

The current generation, as in the 18-30 bracket, are amongst the best educated and intelligent people on the planet. We have been lucky to have an excellent education through primary, secondary, and college levels of schooling, much, much more than the generation before us, and probably better than the generation to follow due to our cuts and debts. So as radical as it seems, I believe that all politicians over the age of 40, with no third level education, be immediately terminated from the government. This is because they have little or no clue about what the country needs. We can see this through the cuts towards education and yet investment in multinational corporation.

The current generation, as generations before them have learnt everything by rote andd have little capability at independent thought. We have been educated to throw as much stuff out in 2.5 hours of exams, be it Leaving Cert or 3rd level and have most of that forgotten within 60 days of doing those exams. The whole education system needs to change.

3rd level is also no guarantee of being anyways properly educated, you are essentially saying that no person who failed to do 3rd level has a right to run for election? hardly very democratic is it.

Dole - Cut off after 6 months if no work is found for 1 month. Saves a bundle and will get people back working. Be more forceful; dont reduce the amount, because thats at its tether already, but reduce the amount of time in a row that people can claim it. People are lazy; get a job in Tesco or a bar or something for wages. Staying on the dole for 2 and 3 years+ is inexcusable.

Care to explain that when work was there a few years ago we had essentially full employment, we were also the most productive people in Europe and we worked the longest hours. Hardly lazy is it?

Party Whip system - agree with above. Abolish, makes a mockery of democracy.

Party whip system is there for a reason. Parties fund their candidates, candidates vote along their lines. if they didn't then every hard decision would be voted down as every TD would oppose it to ensure their best chance of getting in the next time, the government would get nowhere.

sparksfly

I will start with 3 of hundreds of things politicians/policy makers could do to fix the country if they were competent-

Look to Holland to see how an efficient agricultural industry is organized compared to our pathetic effort.
The total value of Dutch agricultural exports was 75.4 billion euros in 2012, ours was approx 9 billion. They are 3 times smaller with 16 million people.

Clean up the filth that's in and around our canals, rivers and lakes, and go after a decent share of angling / water based tourism. Our dole merchants surely could give some of their time.
All you need to do is have a look at lakes such as Lough Ennel and compare it to similar lakes in UK, totally disgraceful.

Get in a decent amount of foreign students that go abroad to learn English, example- Vietnam sends approx 40,000 students abroad annually to learn English. They choose Ireland, England, US, Australia & New Zealand.
We can accommodate 400. We are not even thinking about other markets like China, South Korea, Japan etc.
We would rather see our new teachers go abroad to find work.

For Forks Sake

steddyeddy wrote: »

[*]Gangsters like you Lowry still being part of Fine Gael

Huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lowry

He resigned his ministry in some controversy, and Fine Gael barred him from standing again. Thereafter, he ran as an independent candidate and has maintained his seat in the Dáil ever since.

Get rid of child benefit.

Get rid of job bridge (good in theory but I've only heard of it working in practice a handful of times).

Get rid of all out-of-hours expenses for politicians and require that any expenses claimed are deemed reasonable. Putting on a nice show for guests doesn't count as reasonable.

Spend a little to make a little - put in better means tests for all forms of social welfare payments, not only to cut payments for people abusing the system, but also to increase people who are seriously struggling. In addition, make the security measures easier for people to navigate and understand in order to reduce human error in the system (the new I.D. PPSN cards are a good first step).

Improve public awareness of issues like sustainability and waste. E.g. most people I know only have a green/brown bin because it saves them money, leading to a large proportion of misuse of such services (which costs both parties money) and a failure to fully make use of the services (again, costing both the recycling companies and the public money).

Anyone with less than 20 hours a week of commitments (this could include anything from work to education to volunteering to caring, even to hobbies), should be given some form of task (community services) which involves interaction with people and physical movement. This wouldn't be strict due to the difficult/costly nature of implementing it, but rather, people would randomly be picked like jury duty.

pharmaton

I don't believe the Irish are capable of self government, I don't believe that if the system was wiped clean it would be possible to produce individuals with the capacity to not ride the country sideways at some point along the way, the Irish mentality seems to be a confliction between greed and corruption and self flagellation, it's like expecting the ferengi to be honest and fair, an impossible task.

gerTheGreat

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

1. We are still seeing a 6-month budget deficit of over €6.5 billion. This needs to be drastically reduced. Nation debt should be renegotiated to longer term, lower interest rate loans.

2. The reversal of college fees. They defeat the purpose of building a knowledge based economy by excluding potential students from poorer backgrounds. The higher the number of people attending college, the greater the output of high-skilled employees. This in-turn attracts greater foreign direct investment, which creates jobs, and tax, not to mention the trickle-down effect.

3. It's absolutely paramount to maintain our corporate tax rate as is. Again because of FDI.

4. Better regulation of banking and financial industry. Ensure that the banks are run properly so that we never have to bail them out again.

5. The agriculture industry has been hampered by the CAP, by artificially maintaining output at lower levels than possible. Now that this is ending, investment to help increase the output and efficiency of farms to make them not only self sufficient but to drive food exports.

6. The reduction of VAT by a couple of % would help increase general spending. It may even drag people across the board from the north. I think that Regan's administration came up with the Laffer Curve, but it holds true - the higher the tax rate, the greater the avoidance.

7. Look at the black market and see what can be brought back into the scope of taxation. Consider legalising cannabis, prostitution and other lesser vices. Tax them at rates similar to alcohol, petrol or tobacco. Regulate their quality and potency to reduce the long term effects.

8. Make Irish data protection laws the 21st century equivalent of Swiss banking laws. Ireland is prime data centre country due to low costs of air cooling and solid power grid. Ensuring data privacy would drive up demand for space in Irish data centres and ultimately lead to the expansion of existing centres and new builds. That would create a lot of jobs (Construction initially, then IT & engineering)

9. Invest in off-shore wind farms. Wind farms 10 - 20 miles off the West coast would be invisible to the naked eye and improve our power output.