What would you bring back or bring in if you were the Taoiseach of the Country?

Aongus Von Bismarck

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

Increase the VAT on soft drinks, cheap alcohol, biscuits, crisps, junk food, takeaways, frozen pizzas etc. Decrease or abolish VAT on locally grown, seasonal, unprocessed food. A lot of Irish people are enormously overweight due to their obsession with cheap processed food, chicken fillet rolls, crisps etc.

No point in dying having suffered a life of vegetables.

Stovepipe

4. Maternity / Paternity for working parents significantly expanded. 6 months paid maternity is too short and 2 weeks paid paternity is a disgrace this is a life changing event we should be encouraging working parents to engage in. The next generation of kids are paying our pensions.

5. Education - We should have a central agency that increases or decreases available spots on courses depending on demand and predicted future demand. Why have thousands doing an arts degree when in reality if we made 2 or 3 times the spaces in medicine available they would like to do that.[/QUOTE]

six months paid maternity is too short?! Really....all that does is generate more people having babies on the State's dollar. It's called Generation Dole. One of our fine local examples has just gone past me with her four kids under four. She is not a taxpayer in any shape or form. Her kids wont enter the workforce for at least 15 years so she and they are net consumers. When working people have babies, they at least don't drop out of work immediately and can go back to work when it suits them and can even work from home. So, they continue to contribute to the tax base and help pay for their time off. You want to reduce childcare costs? That, at least, is a good idea.

Stovepipe

I'd reduce car taxes and make car ownership less costly, as the electric car revolution is more than a little delayed. Charging infrastructure is way behind...

Airyfairy12

Stovepipe wrote: »

4. Maternity / Paternity for working parents significantly expanded. 6 months paid maternity is too short and 2 weeks paid paternity is a disgrace this is a life changing event we should be encouraging working parents to engage in. The next generation of kids are paying our pensions.

5. Education - We should have a central agency that increases or decreases available spots on courses depending on demand and predicted future demand. Why have thousands doing an arts degree when in reality if we made 2 or 3 times the spaces in medicine available they would like to do that.

six months paid maternity is too short?! Really....all that does is generate more people having babies on the State's dollar. It's called Generation Dole. One of our fine local examples has just gone past me with her four kids under four. She is not a taxpayer in any shape or form. Her kids wont enter the workforce for at least 15 years so she and they are net consumers. When working people have babies, they at least don't drop out of work immediately and can go back to work when it suits them and can even work from home. So, they continue to contribute to the tax base and help pay for their time off. You want to reduce childcare costs? That, at least, is a good idea.

Id agree with all except the paid maternity leave. If someone isnt working, they cant get maternity leave as theyre already unemployed.
If someone is working, 6 months isnt long enough and causes lots of women to leave their jobs and careers. The cost of childcare alone is enough to force one parent out of work to be a stay at home parent.
Also the first year of a childs life is very important developmentally and separation from a parents for long hours each day can cause life long lasting consequences.
Thirdly, the effects on womens bodies after having a baby and the changes that women have to deal with it arent something that should be undermined. The effects on hormones alone take a long time to regulate, women often experience sever mental health problems after giving birth that can last a year or more, separation from their newborn can exasperate this. Theres also body trauma that needs time to heal.
For example while giving birth most women have their vagina cut open right up to their anus. They often suffer a weakening of the pelvic floor that causes bladder incontinence & pain.
For allot of women child birth causes prolapsed wombs - the womb literally falls out the vagina and has to be pushed back in every couple of months. Women with this disorder can be on a waiting list for up to 8 years to have their wombs removed. You can imagine this would be an uncomfortable & painful thing to have to deal with.
I could go on all night about the physical & mental/emotional health issues women encounter in the months immediately after childbirth & beyond but I would hope you get the idea after whats been listed above.

Sending women back to work weeks after giving birth is inhumane, abusive and ignorant imo.

Stovepipe

I understand where you are coming from but it's more a function of childcare costs than becoming unwell. Most women have perfectly normal deliveries and are keen to get back to work after a reasonable amount of time. Naturally, this varies from person to person but quite simply, a lot of women want to resume work because they don't want to be bypassed in the workplace/they are ambituous/they are bored at home/they don't want to allow their 4 or six years of college to go idle.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Everything you said is wrong. Branches might close for five days, but not back office functions, which is where the majority of people work in banking. You're talking out your hole.

My bank did not pay bonuses this year, or since the financial crisis. Nor did the previous bank I worked for. No Irish bank that has approached me for employment has offered a bonus. You're talking out your hole.

Preferential loans? Before the financial crisis yeah. Not now. Talking out your hole.

I'm done talking with ya, you're just making stuff up at this point.

Pitiful.

Pitiful indeed but yet you feel free to label the public sector.

Again for the ignorant, EQUALITY means treating people the same.

You do admit that before your industry ****ed the nation they did indeed give all the perks I just mentioned.

Outkast_IRE

Stovepipe wrote: »

six months paid maternity is too short?! Really....all that does is generate more people having babies on the State's dollar. It's called Generation Dole. One of our fine local examples has just gone past me with her four kids under four. She is not a taxpayer in any shape or form. Her kids wont enter the workforce for at least 15 years so she and they are net consumers. When working people have babies, they at least don't drop out of work immediately and can go back to work when it suits them and can even work from home. So, they continue to contribute to the tax base and help pay for their time off. You want to reduce childcare costs? That, at least, is a good idea.

Maternity and paternity pay is for people who work, I think we as a society want to encourage them to have more kids as we are now in a situation where working parents are mid to late 30s before having them so most will have a maximum of 2 kids which is hugely problematic for the next generation of our society .

As someone whose household has both parents working I will stand over the fact 6 months is too little and 2 weeks is far too little for father's , many father's now take a far more active role in helping with babies than even one generation ago.

feelfreeto

feelfreeto wrote: »

A crowdfunded iot 5g enabled Bluetooth low energy enhanced ai as a service distributed cloud multi experience quantum technology hyperautomation algorithmic data learning cryptocurrency secure blockchain system to let people vote on their phones daily, one law a day every day. Essentially direct democracy with a lot of buzzwords.

They stole my idea.
thejournal. ie/readme/democracy-and-technology-5291175-Jan2021/