How would you spend a €19 billion windfall Apple?

maudgonner · 26-01-2016 09:18PM

chops018 wrote: »

I'm not trolling, and I'm not from Dublin either. Would be interested in hearing your reply too, might change my mind or inform me, am genuinely interested.

OK then, in my view, mindlessly pushing more and more industry and infrastructure into Dublin makes little sense, given that we're constantly hearing how there is no office space and no accommodation for workers.

If development was more balanced throughout the country, with high quality jobs being provided by major employers in urban centres other than Dublin, it could alleviate capacity issues in Dublin as well as revitalising areas that have experienced decline in the last 10/20/30 years.

How you tempt major employers out of Dublin, I'm not sure. Frankly I'm not sure what's keeping many of them there at the moment. I'm not involved in network infrastructure, so I can't comment on the quality of high-speed data links in the cities. But I suspect that it's a critical mass thing - if more employers set up outside of Dublin then it would encourage others to do so and that would lead to improved infrastructure and a greater labour pool.

If Dublin's population explosion were to be more evenly distributed throughout other urban areas then Cork, Limerick, Galway etc might feel more like cities to you. (Hint - if you genuinely weren't trying to be insulting, putting the city names in quotes wasn't helpful. Neither was the pejorative "so called"). Not everyone wants to live in Dublin, many do so because that's where the job opportunities are.

And since you asked, traffic in Galway can be a nightmare. I lived in Dublin for many years and have experienced Dublin traffic. Galway gridlocks are often worse than anything I've seen in Dublin. Things can come to a complete and utter standstill for hours with no apparent cause. It badly needs an orbital route (but no, that does not need to be on the scale of the M50).

osarusan · 26-01-2016 09:40PM

Drive from Cork to Limerick and tell me we have a great motorway network.

I was stopped because a farmer was bringing cows across the road FFS!

chops018 · 26-01-2016 09:41PM

maudgonner wrote: »

OK then, in my view, mindlessly pushing more and more industry and infrastructure into Dublin makes little sense, given that we're constantly hearing how there is no office space and no accommodation for workers.

I agree - I would love to see places like Limerick, Waterford, Galway improve industry wise and population wise. I feel it would have a great effect on the towns within 30 miles of those areas, and so they would be less and less reliant on Dublin. My point was however that more money doesn't need to be pumped into these areas for extra motorways, considering how pumping money into linking motorways to these areas has not really improved them I don't see how further large scale projects could.

maudgonner wrote: »

If development was more balanced throughout the country, with high quality jobs being provided by major employers in urban centres other than Dublin, it could alleviate capacity issues in Dublin as well as revitalising areas that have experienced decline in the last 10/20/30 years.

I agree - however, my point again, pumping money into extra motorways will not help this, it has already been done by linking Dublin to a lot of the other large population areas and in turn a lot of other towns along the way. Doesn't seem to have had much improvements.

maudgonner wrote: »

How you tempt major employers out of Dublin, I'm not sure. Frankly I'm not sure what's keeping many of them there at the moment. I'm not involved in network infrastructure, so I can't comment on the quality of high-speed data links in the cities. But I suspect that it's a critical mass thing - if more employers set up outside of Dublin then it would encourage others to do so and that would lead to improved infrastructure and a greater labour pool.

Haven't got a clue on this area myself really so I won't argue here.

maudgonner wrote: »

If Dublin's population explosion were to be more evenly distributed throughout other urban areas then Cork, Limerick, Galway etc might feel more like cities to you. (Hint - if you genuinely weren't trying to be insulting, putting the city names in quotes wasn't helpful. Neither was the pejorative "so called"). Not everyone wants to live in Dublin, many do so because that's where the job opportunities are.

They would indeed feel more like cities to me as a result of this.

You look at countries throughout Europe similar in size to ours, granted they have populations three times our size, but they usually have 4-5 major cities with around 300,000-500,000 people and then a lot of commuter towns within 30-50 miles with the likes Limerick, Galway and Waterford's populations.

maudgonner wrote: »

And since you asked, traffic in Galway can be a nightmare. I lived in Dublin for many years and have experienced Dublin traffic. Galway gridlocks are often worse than anything I've seen in Dublin. Things can come to a complete and utter standstill for hours with no apparent cause. It badly needs an orbital route (but no, that does not need to be on the scale of the M50).

Fair enough - I hadn't realised Galway could get so bad, maybe some project to alleviate this would be useful there. I know parts of Limerick could be bad traffic wise in certain areas in the morning but never on the scale of how Dublin does get.

maudgonner · 26-01-2016 10:15PM

chops018 wrote: »

I agree - I would love to see places like Limerick, Waterford, Galway improve industry wise and population wise. I feel it would have a great effect on the towns within 30 miles of those areas, and so they would be less and less reliant on Dublin. My point was however that more money doesn't need to be pumped into these areas for extra motorways, considering how pumping money into linking motorways to these areas has not really improved them I don't see how further large scale projects could.

I think if you ask the people of Galway and Limerick whether the new motorway between those two cities will improve things the answer would be a resounding yes. I'm sure the same would be said about a Cork-Limerick motorway etc.

Nobody wants motorways built for the sake of it (aside from road-builders and vested interests I guess), but there are some cases where non-Dublin-directed motorways are needed. Likewise if the regional cities were stronger, then existing motorways would be busier.

So personally, I would rather see at least some of the mythical 19bn put to more creative use than just ploughing it into Dublin-centric infrastructure (not just motorways btw - public transport, internet, power grid, employment incentives etc etc).

RobertKK · 26-01-2016 10:46PM

Apple announced their results, they have £216 billion in cash.

26-01-2016 10:59PM

I'd clone dinosaurs and open Jurassic Park on the Aran Islands.

maudgonner · 26-01-2016 11:32PM

Dónal wrote: »

I'd clone dinosaurs and open Jurassic Park on the Aran Islands.

Now we're talking! Tedfest would be AMAZING that year.

Tyran Ó Sáras here we come. (Sorry, sorry)

Fr_Dougal · 26-01-2016 11:37PM

People not reading the news? The EU has voted in favour of repatriating the funds to the affected EU member States, we won't benefit from any windfall.

RoyalMarine · 27-01-2016 12:11AM

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

People not reading the news? The EU has voted in favour of repatriating the funds to the affected EU member States, we won't benefit from any windfall.

Got a link to that?

sdanseo · 27-01-2016 12:13AM

d2ww wrote: »

It would all go towards reducing the €200,000,000,000 deficit because the EU's expenditure benchmark kicks in this year.
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/dan-obrien/hope-will-turn-to-anger-as-reality-of-our-spending-power-hits-home-34391157.html

I don't see any mention of a 200bn deficit in your link - last I heard we were bailed out to the tune of 86bn or so, and have already delivered large chunks of that back.

A 19bn windfall - even in the unlikely event that we received anywhere near that amount - could be used very constructively.

Some ideas and half-arsed figures based on recent reading:
9.5bn - (half) return to the EU countries we borrowed from. Debt is debt.
4.5bn - improving infrastructure. M20, Dart Underground and significant electrification of the Dublin Area could be easily achieved for this sum, with probably enough left over to semi-fund Metro North as well.
3.5bn - bring the health budget back to where it needs to be, (approx 500m more than 2008) including the construction, without significant delay, of an additional emergency hospital in the Dublin Area.
250m - increase Garda resources and bring the force to 15,000 or more, and fund a crack force to remove the drug dealing and other scum from the streets and lock them away from society
750m - remove USC for anyone earning under 25,000. My figures might be a bit off with this one but adjust that cutoff up or down with whatever's left
500m - inject to Irish Water for the sole purpose of actually improving the infrastructure which they haven't actually done - instead all the 1bn + so far "invested" has been poured down the pun-intended proverbial

Dyr · 27-01-2016 12:20AM

Education

Housing

Health

Infrastructure

19 billion might actually bring about some sort of meritocracy in this country. Which would obviously be a terrible thing.

sdanseo · 27-01-2016 12:30AM

Forgot housing. Allocate a billion to actually building some social homes (in areas that aren't prone to flooding or other results of catastrophic failures in planning over the last few decades).

Titzon Toast · 27-01-2016 12:44AM

Abortions for some, miniature flags for all.

NIMAN · 27-01-2016 12:47AM

iPhone 6s for everyone in the country.

John_Rambo · 27-01-2016 12:50AM

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Only farmers should live in rural Ireland?

In isolated areas, yes, they're the only ones that need to be there.

SafeSurfer wrote: »

You do realise that even farmers need shops, doctors, pubs, restaurants, vets, postal workers etc. a lot of jobs that are done by people currently clogging up the M50 could be down from anywhere in Ireland given a decent broadband connection.

You do realise that the shops, surgeries, pubs, restaurants, vets, post offices etc... are dying? The towns are dying because people are not living in them, they're living in one of housing, driving to outlet stores, not supporting the towns. What doctor/vet/restaurateur/publican/postmaster wants to live and make money in an unsupported town? Can a vet work online, a doctor, a publican, a butcher, a greengrocer? The population is being spread out, sucking money to service, police them... next they'll be calling for special laws to drink and drive, or has that been muted already?

sdanseo · 27-01-2016 12:50AM

NIMAN wrote: »

iPhone 6s for everyone in the country.

That'd leave about 16 billion. iPad and a Mac as well please.

Ruu · 27-01-2016 12:51AM

E-voting machines sound like a great idea.

SafeSurfer · 27-01-2016 01:12AM

John_Rambo wrote: »

In isolated areas, yes, they're the only ones that need to be there.

You do realise that the shops, surgeries, pubs, restaurants, vets, post offices etc... are dying? The towns are dying because people are not living in them, they're living in one of housing, driving to outlet stores, not supporting the towns. What doctor/vet/restaurateur/publican/postmaster wants to live and make money in an unsupported town? Can a vet work online, a doctor, a publican, a butcher, a greengrocer? The population is being spread out, sucking money to service, police them... next they'll be calling for special laws to drink and drive, or has that been muted already?

It depends what you define as an isolated area. I get the impression that what you would consider an isolated area would differ to mine.

Why are rural towns dying? One word. Jobs.

The majority of people who grow up on rural Ireland have to leave to find work.

John_Rambo · 28-01-2016 12:52AM

SafeSurfer wrote: »

It depends what you define as an isolated area. I get the impression that what you would consider an isolated area would differ to mine.

Why are rural towns dying? One word. Jobs.

The majority of people who grow up on rural Ireland have to leave to find work.

And, there's no jobs because nobodies supporting the towns and villages.

The shift to urbanisation is spreading throughout Europe. Ireland is lagging behind and rural Ireland is suffering because of this lag. Larger towns are being ignored as hordes of people run to the larger urban areas. Local villages and towns are being ignored by the locals. Small towns and villages are dying. It's a shame, but that's what people seem to want.

ScumLord · 28-01-2016 04:06PM

Ruu wrote: »

E-voting machines sound like a great idea.

They are a great idea, it would take a special level of stupidity to mess them up.

How would you spend a €19 billion windfall Apple?

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