If you were..............in charge

plonk

If you were in berties position - taoiseach and you could decide what the country needed to insure a better quality of living for all people what would you do or change.


Or what would you like to see the next goverment do?

mike65

Clearly I would sack the cabinet and declare Martial Law. Much to be said for a benign dictatorship.

Mike.

A Dub in Glasgo

mike65 wrote:

Clearly I would sack the cabinet and declare Martial Law. Much to be said for a benign dictatorship.

Mike.

Maybe sack Waterford

mike65

Ah the Danes beat me to that by about 1250 years!

Mike.

walrusgumble

treat older people with more respect, sort the nursing home/care provisions for them

create licences for smokers only pubs

create my own bertie bowl, and make sure it happens, with a big statue of my self on it

ha so far not many good ideas from anyone(me too) seems easy to slag bertie and co off

get ministers more involved in inspecting the quality/quanity work effectiveness of the civil servants, make sure they are not sitting on there ar9es, cut down some of the wages for post not really needed

try and keep doctors and nurses in ireland, create more vacanies, maybe get an independent research done, actually speaks to as many doctors/nurses about their career and what they believe is wrong with the system

same with police, speak to the normal cop on the street, fund them with equipment like it and protective gear and improved cars,

bring in some of the very good recommendations of the constitution review group report of 1996

get rid of ryan turbidy from rte. get rid or we wont fund ya

make min for eduation to improve the civics course (1st - junior cert) to include proper areas with honest teachings of sex, drink/drugs and tolerance to other cultures and nationalities.

fund the navy better, why? we need bigger ships, they can be also used to help out in sea rescue, we after all are an island who has to make sure other countries dont get there claws on the sea space we have on the western coast.

improve rural areas and get incentitives for the young to come back, ie new factories/companies (improvement of infrastructre would be needed, open up some old train lines if economical to do so)

oh go all green and improve our attempts to sort out global warning

improve waiting time for processing ayslum applications/leave to remain/eu1 applications on base of marriage to eu citizens/visa applications. after all procedures taken and if refused (when there is a clear reason they are not entiled refugee status/leave on humanitarian reasons and other) deport them within reason as soon as possible (like in germany). maybe allow some to work if they have been waiting for a decision after 1 year. some might think what the hell, but, it is inhuman and unfair that they come to this country and wait almost up to 2 years before they get a decision, they are in limbo and the dept of justice needs to sort this out

legalise gay/lesiban rights and improve children's rights in areas such as custody, adoption, look at effective ways to deal with young offenders (throwing them in prison/detention centres dont seem to work)

tax bono

consider adopting similar procedures o how to tackle drugs/traetment as seen in hamburg germany. legalise canabis/hash

ireland is neutral, keep it neutral. get the us airforce out of shannon and the proposal of knock. we shall scrap up the money somewhere else.if france and germany can sand up to the us so should we

InFront

I'd view the following departments (with appropriate adjustment) as strict businesses to be run tightly and every last penny spared in their operations (with dreamteam ministers in brackets):


Transport (Olivia Mitchell)
Defence/ International Peacekeeping (Foreign Affairs and Justice Ministers, department eventually abolished when world peace is secured.)
Tourism with Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mary Harney)
Finance (Richard Bruton)
Foreign Affairs (Enda Kenny)
Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Myself(and I would also be Chief Justice of course))


And I would treat the following departments as charities

Philosophy, Arts, and Joyce (Michael D Higgins)
Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs with World Cultures (Jim O'Keefe)
Science, Technology and Mathematics (Olwyn Enright)
Health and Children (Liam Twomey)
Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, incorporating Environment (Mairead McGuinness)
Social, Community and Family Affairs (Joan Burton)
Education (Mary Hannafin)
Fun and Happiness (Hector O Heochagain)

Obviously their role as charities would be within economic limits, but the availability of their services, by and large, would be stretched as far as they could possibly go.

Other:
Tony Gregory: Minister without Portfolio/ Chief Advisor to the Taoiseach


My first duty would be a reform of the health service, and to stamp out crime. Easier said than done, but this is all hypothetical:)

I would then call a referendum to create a constutional amendment which would abolish Seanad Eireann and the offices of the Tanaiste and the President, which are wasteful.

I would try to make Dublin an important cultural city and promote tourism.

By reforming postgraduate education would hope to make it an important educational centre also. The University of Dublin would comprise UCD, TCD, DIT and the RCSI.

That's all I can think of for the moment.

walrusgumble

InFront wrote:

I'd view the following departments (with appropriate adjustment) as strict businesses to be run tightly and every last penny spared in their operations (with dreamteam ministers in brackets):


Transport (Olivia Mitchell)
Defence/ International Peacekeeping (Foreign Affairs and Justice Ministers, department eventually abolished when world peace is secured.)
Tourism with Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mary Harney)
Finance (Richard Bruton)
Foreign Affairs (Enda Kenny)
Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Myself(and I would also be Chief Justice of course))


And I would treat the following departments as charities

Philosophy, Arts and Joyce (Michael D Higgins)
Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (Jim O'Keefe)
Science, Technology and Mathematics (Olwyn Enright)
Health and Children (Liam Twomey)
Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, incorporating Environment (Mairead McGuinness)
Social, Community and Family Affairs (Joan Burton)
Education (Mary Hannafin)
Fun and Happiness (Hector O Heochagain)

Obviously their role as charities would be within economic limits, but the availability of their services, by and large, would be stretched as far as they could possibly go.

Other:
Tony Gregory: Minister without Portfolio/ Chief Advisor to the Taoiseach


My first duty would be a reform of the health service, and to stamp out crime. Easier said than done, but this is all hypothetical:)

I would then call a referendum to create a constutional amendment which would abolish Seanad Eireann and the offices of the Tanaiste and the President, which are wasteful.

I would try to make Dublin an important cultural city and promote tourism.

By reforming postgraduate education would hope to make it an important educational centre also. The University of Dublin would comprise UCD, TCD, DIT and the RCSI.

That's all I can think of for the moment.

decent.but

you would always need foreign affairs minister in peace time (to deal with some eu/usa maters)

tourism - mary harney yuk, dawn french in a butlins red coat.

so ya wanna be chief justice and justice min (thank god for the doctrine of separation of powers lol )

david norris, give him something too, he has some rassa ma tass

enda kenny foreign minister (i take it you are fg) oh dear god no, where's he suave, he'd bore the council of europe with his rubbish jfk impreesions (as seen on the late late)

dublin has enough of investment, maybe try improve limerick give them initative, or galway, think of the rural td's ya know lol

tony geogry would be good but is he still relevant any more?

one things dr jim mcdaid would excell in, is fun and games and fashion. all those smart suits, perma tan, trips to the races, tips for the bookies, extreme driving lessons, and management courses, jesus he'd be brilliant to have as an entertainment officer for a students union come rag week

abolish seanad (dev in diguise, dev in diguise) and the prez(who gonna open up spar, ex ms world bha).....dictator coming hail chairman in front

oscarBravo

walrusgumble wrote:

create licences for smokers only pubs

Why? And how would you prevent non-smokers going into them?

Gurgle

mike65 wrote:

Clearly I would sack the cabinet and declare Martial Law. Much to be said for a benign dictatorship.

My thought exactly.
Only way to actually get anything done.

What I would like to see:

1. Corruption by any elected official would be punished by seizing all their assets and deporting them to Australia.

2. Union officials defending the undefendable and making ridiculous pay demands would be deported to the USA (they deserve them, and they would have to be kept away from the politicians).

3. There would be 30 TDs, whose pay would be docked if they didn't show up (fully prepared) for every Dail session. 15 ministers, 15 assistant ministers. 'Opposition' would be the people who almost got elected.

4. There would be planning. Not guessing/estimating/hoping/wishing; planning.

5. There would be schools, trains, roads and hospitals. Everywhere, not just in Dublin. (See 4.)

6. The minister for health would be required to be a doctor with at least 20 years experience. The minister for transport would be an engineer (and have a driving license). The minister for defence would be a general. The minister for education would be a teacher. See where I'm going with this?

7. It would be physically impossible to spend enough of your life outside prison to clock up 30 convictions.

8. The catholic church would lose quite a lot of its 'special' status. Specifically, anyone with knowledge of child abuse who didn't bring it to the gardai would be prosecuted for aiding and abbeting.

9. Accountability, and lots of it.

10. The island would be detached from its current position and moored 200miles off the west coast of Spain. Maybe floated off to Jamaica for a couple of weeks every five years.

Fratton Fred

Stamp out corruption
find out where all the money goes
stamp out corruption

oscarBravo

Gurgle wrote:

The minister for health would be required to be a doctor with at least 20 years experience. The minister for transport would be an engineer (and have a driving license). The minister for defence would be a general. The minister for education would be a teacher. See where I'm going with this?

Yes. The minister for communications, marine and natural resources would have to have been a telephone engineer, a fisherman and a miner at some point in his career.

Shouldn't be any shortage of candidates for the job.

walrusgumble

oscarBravo wrote:

Why? And how would you prevent non-smokers going into them?

on the contray they would be welcomed, it would be a pub for smokers in mind. jesus discrimination and equality laws would kick me ass if i did that, i made a mistake on that proposal (shock horror, an taosieach makes another gaf, backbenchers already out with the knives)

oscarBravo

walrusgumble wrote:

on the contray they would be welcomed, it would be a pub for smokers in mind.

In other words, a complete reversal of the non-smoking laws.

I've been in smoky-ass pubs outside Ireland in the last year or two. I won't be voting for you.

InFront

In fairness, I wouldn't be voting for any of us who posted here!

Gurgle

oscarBravo wrote:

Yes. The minister for communications, marine and natural resources would have to have been a telephone engineer, a fisherman and a miner at some point in his career.

Shouldn't be any shortage of candidates for the job.

Ever wonder why some mixed-topic departments can go for decades without ever actually achieving anything?

Might as well have a minister for health, soccer and fishing.

Lemming

If I were in charge ... he. he. he.

Ok, power-trip joking insanity aside, I'd do the following:

1. The courts

Remove political influence from the courts. This has massive implications for the day-to-day happenings of this country, including some of the extremely significant indicents of political/economic-backhander meddling. Judges, once elected, should (and are supposed to be) removed from the sphere of daily life in dispensing their duties. This includes kertowing to the politicians who appoint them in the first place. Otherwise known as "no politician ever gets jail time" *, or "Joe.BusinessMan knows Mr.TD therefore wont go to jail".


2. Health system reform.

a). Cull the health-boards. We have too many health-boards, each with its own director, vice-director, head-accountant, etc positions. You don't see banks with this kind of set-up (for example) - what you see are "branches" which might have mid-level ranks in charge of district operations. Each branch having "senior" level staff is an utter, utter drain on financial resources. As an example, the UK has a fraction of the health-board numbers we have, yet a far larger population and geographic coverage.

b). Cull the HSE. Speaking from personal experience (in dealing with the HSE at industry level in a previous workplace), my impression was that they are i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y inefficient and either understaffed (highly unlikely) or grossly unmotivated. THe HSE needs a radical shake-up and tbh, I wouldn't know where to start.


3. Insurance

The insurance sector cartel needs to be attacked since it is undermining business costs among other things. Added benefit being less fleecing of customers for car-insurance which I'm sure would be a win-win for the electorate and businesses


4. Building Industry

This includes builders and estate-agents, and their attendant business (mal)practices. These sectors require "intense" scrutiny on every level to give them the message loud and clear to stop f*cking with the competitiveness of the Irish economy.


5. Finance

Further work to curtail banking irregularities should be maintained, along with efforts to reign in what I can only describe as "reckless" lending by banks which has helped fuel the rise of point number 4. Simple logic. If people can only get the mortgages that they should have been getting had banks followed their own alleged criteria anyway, the house prices would have to match the money available, thus reigning in the silly money asking-prices.


Final comments. All things in all, I would put focus into #1, and then #2. These are the big two. Get these and you have both breathing room, a possible budgetary surplus of sorts for health, and a sane and impartial arbitrator.

After that, everything is swings and roundabouts, although points 3, 4, & 5 are harming the country regarding competitiveness since people are demanding higher wages as a result.


yes, we all know Lawlor went to prison, but come on .. he didn't really.

Hoverboards for everyone. They looked pretty good in Back to the Future.

Gurgle

Deleted User wrote:

Hoverboards for everyone. They looked pretty good in Back to the Future.

Bah!
Should see my ESB bill from recharging that thing. And it goes nuts if you go near a puddle, something to do with flux reflection.

Fratton Fred

Lemming wrote:

If I were in charge ... he. he. he.

Ok, power-trip joking insanity aside, I'd do the following:

1. The courts

Remove political influence from the courts. This has massive implications for the day-to-day happenings of this country, including some of the extremely significant indicents of political/economic-backhander meddling. Judges, once elected, should (and are supposed to be) removed from the sphere of daily life in dispensing their duties. This includes kertowing to the politicians who appoint them in the first place. Otherwise known as "no politician ever gets jail time" *, or "Joe.BusinessMan knows Mr.TD therefore wont go to jail".


2. Health system reform.

a). Cull the health-boards. We have too many health-boards, each with its own director, vice-director, head-accountant, etc positions. You don't see banks with this kind of set-up (for example) - what you see are "branches" which might have mid-level ranks in charge of district operations. Each branch having "senior" level staff is an utter, utter drain on financial resources. As an example, the UK has a fraction of the health-board numbers we have, yet a far larger population and geographic coverage.

b). Cull the HSE. Speaking from personal experience (in dealing with the HSE at industry level in a previous workplace), my impression was that they are i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y inefficient and either understaffed (highly unlikely) or grossly unmotivated. THe HSE needs a radical shake-up and tbh, I wouldn't know where to start.


3. Insurance

The insurance sector cartel needs to be attacked since it is undermining business costs among other things. Added benefit being less fleecing of customers for car-insurance which I'm sure would be a win-win for the electorate and businesses


4. Building Industry

This includes builders and estate-agents, and their attendant business (mal)practices. These sectors require "intense" scrutiny on every level to give them the message loud and clear to stop f*cking with the competitiveness of the Irish economy.


5. Finance

Further work to curtail banking irregularities should be maintained, along with efforts to reign in what I can only describe as "reckless" lending by banks which has helped fuel the rise of point number 4. Simple logic. If people can only get the mortgages that they should have been getting had banks followed their own alleged criteria anyway, the house prices would have to match the money available, thus reigning in the silly money asking-prices.


Final comments. All things in all, I would put focus into #1, and then #2. These are the big two. Get these and you have both breathing room, a possible budgetary surplus of sorts for health, and a sane and impartial arbitrator.

After that, everything is swings and roundabouts, although points 3, 4, & 5 are harming the country regarding competitiveness since people are demanding higher wages as a result.


yes, we all know Lawlor went to prison, but come on .. he didn't really.

If you could sort out the Rail Procurement Agency as well and get a decent underground metro sorted out for Dublin, you would certainly get my vote.

Glenbhoy

I'd take a leaf out of late idol President Niyazov of Turkmenistan's book. The revolving statue at the bottom would look well on top of the spire I feel.

http://www.tmrepublican.org/content.php?t=turkmenistantoday

walrusgumble

oscarBravo wrote:

In other words, a complete reversal of the non-smoking laws.

I've been in smoky-ass pubs outside Ireland in the last year or two. I won't be voting for you.

no no not a complete reversal of the laws. abolutely not. even as a smoker i see the good things that come out of the ban,

no i would allow a pub to apply for a special licence (wont charge too much maybe €100 a year) for pubs who wish to reverse to the old days. maybe some rural pubs were their customer who smoke might appreciate it. it would be up to the publican whether or not to decide to allow his premises and staff to put up with smokers in their pub. it would be up to him to risk loosing the business of his non smoker customers and gain new customers (smokers)

it would just be allowing a publican and their customers to choose. however, on condition that they wish to create a pub for smokers they may have to install air extractors to unsure the place is not completely full of smoke (in consideration for non smokers who dont mind coming into such pub)

maybe publicans and all customers are happy with the situation as it is now, but at least they would be given a choice. it is bad enough smokers are punished with annual hikes in the price of cigs, how come they dont have the balls to do that with drink, (by all means i would not hike the price as its expensive enough as it is)

Dontico

apoint a minister of pranks. there should be a department in the giovernment going around pranking random civilians, just to keep them on thier toes.

i would ban the following.
sex and the city, pop idol and simular shows, fish, creationists, protesters, beef, black pepper in ready made products and restraunts, and rap music.

Fratton Fred

Dontico wrote:

apoint a minister of pranks. there should be a department in the giovernment going around pranking random civilians, just to keep them on thier toes.

you mean there isn't one doing that already :eek:

Lennoxschips

If I was in charge....

Planning
-Stop urban sprawl in its tracks. More medium to high density urban housing, less sprawling suburban estates.

-Toll motorways leading out of cities.

-No more mega-malls and super-Tescos.

-Introduce department of urban planning and force contractors to build housing according to plans. I.e., with trees, parks, playgrounds, cycle lanes, integrated street grid, shops, schools etc.

-Better social housing schemes.

-Impose higher tax rates on second and holiday homes.

Transport
-Get public transport running properly. Build more commuter rail lines and Luas. Luas in Cork as well possibly, or at least proper bus lanes with new buses.

-Reclassify high quality dual carriageway N-roads to Motorway, raise limit to 120 km/hr for these where it is safe to do so.

-Lower limit on entire M50 to 100 km/hr.

-Lower limit on low quality N-roads (most of them) to 80 km/hr.

-Lower limit on low quality R-roads (most of them) to 60 km/hr.

-Completely abolish the provisional driving license and introduce a system of compulsory driving lessons at accredited driving schools, like in Germany, France and Holland.

-Impose a stricter alcohol limit.

-Fixed speed cameras at all black spots and dangerous stretches of road. Use tolling systems to calculate average speed of driver between entry and exit of toll road.

Economy

-Increase the top level tax rate back to 41%.

-Lower the lowest tax rate.

Environment

-Introduce a two tiered electricity rate with ESB. Each home gets an electricity budget of standard rate electricity, and use beyond that budget and the price per kw/hr goes up. This will encourage conservation.

-Introduce water metering.

-Increase use of renewable energy.

-Increase efficiency of product distribution and offer incentives for people to use local products.

-Require that products have only one layer of packaging, preferably biodegradable.

-Aim to reduce the number of car-km traveled in this country (ties in with planning and transport)

Foreign Policy

-Neutrality means neutrality.

-Increase EU cooperation and integration.

Health

-Better facilities, more doctors.

Sleepy

Lemming wrote:

If I were in charge ... he. he. he.

Ok, power-trip joking insanity aside, I'd do the following:

1. The courts

Remove political influence from the courts. This has massive implications for the day-to-day happenings of this country, including some of the extremely significant indicents of political/economic-backhander meddling. Judges, once elected, should (and are supposed to be) removed from the sphere of daily life in dispensing their duties. This includes kertowing to the politicians who appoint them in the first place. Otherwise known as "no politician ever gets jail time" *, or "Joe.BusinessMan knows Mr.TD therefore wont go to jail".


2. Health system reform.

a). Cull the health-boards. We have too many health-boards, each with its own director, vice-director, head-accountant, etc positions. You don't see banks with this kind of set-up (for example) - what you see are "branches" which might have mid-level ranks in charge of district operations. Each branch having "senior" level staff is an utter, utter drain on financial resources. As an example, the UK has a fraction of the health-board numbers we have, yet a far larger population and geographic coverage.

b). Cull the HSE. Speaking from personal experience (in dealing with the HSE at industry level in a previous workplace), my impression was that they are i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y inefficient and either understaffed (highly unlikely) or grossly unmotivated. THe HSE needs a radical shake-up and tbh, I wouldn't know where to start.


3. Insurance

The insurance sector cartel needs to be attacked since it is undermining business costs among other things. Added benefit being less fleecing of customers for car-insurance which I'm sure would be a win-win for the electorate and businesses


4. Building Industry

This includes builders and estate-agents, and their attendant business (mal)practices. These sectors require "intense" scrutiny on every level to give them the message loud and clear to stop f*cking with the competitiveness of the Irish economy.


5. Finance

Further work to curtail banking irregularities should be maintained, along with efforts to reign in what I can only describe as "reckless" lending by banks which has helped fuel the rise of point number 4. Simple logic. If people can only get the mortgages that they should have been getting had banks followed their own alleged criteria anyway, the house prices would have to match the money available, thus reigning in the silly money asking-prices.


Final comments. All things in all, I would put focus into #1, and then #2. These are the big two. Get these and you have both breathing room, a possible budgetary surplus of sorts for health, and a sane and impartial arbitrator.

After that, everything is swings and roundabouts, although points 3, 4, & 5 are harming the country regarding competitiveness since people are demanding higher wages as a result.


yes, we all know Lawlor went to prison, but come on .. he didn't really.

Throw in an over-haul of the public sector which involves making their unions illegal organisations and you have my vote.

Sleepy

Lennoxschips wrote:

-Introduce a two tiered electricity rate with ESB. Each home gets an electricity budget of standard rate electricity, and use beyond that budget and the price per kw/hr goes up. This will encourage conservation.

-Require that products have only one layer of packaging, preferably biodegradable.

It absolutely fvcking amazes that these haven't been done already. Both do-able at the stroke of a pen, with practically zero negative repurcussions. But no, instead we'll blow a fortune on advertising 'the power of one' instead of making meaningful change. :rolleyes:

Lemming

Sleepy wrote:

It absolutely fvcking amazes that these haven't been done already. Both do-able at the stroke of a pen, with practically zero negative repurcussions. But no, instead we'll blow a fortune on advertising 'the power of one' instead of making meaningful change. :rolleyes:

I think there are easier solutions. Don't forget the ESB will need to redevelop their usage monitoring & billing systems to a, I would guess, fairly large amount.

And whilst conservation is a damn good thing, it still doesn't deal with other issues such as vulnerability to import prices. You can conserve all you want, but if the baseline import prices go up .. there's sod all you can do. And all you'll have done is wasted a not-insignificant amount of exchequer funds.

I'd promote things like more efficient insulation/building standards, or perhaps a grant scheme for people to do this with their homes (much like was done with bord gais back in the 90s to promote natural gas), and the likes of more efficient household appliances (light-bulbs) etc, before I'd go spending crazy money on rejigging the ESB's systems. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say it should never be done, but there are easier and less painful options to achieve the same result that should be tried first.

Lets not forget that we'd have a consultation period, analysis & design, implementation, unions demanding recompense, and all manner of teething problems in implementing such a system. Factor in the fact that it's a government-funded venture and you can multiply the 'gravy-train' factor by a number of ten. And of course the advertising & support required to notify customers of the changes & implications.

rogue-entity

I would attack the business sectors with a vengence, we need more competition in the industry, especially in the insurance and telecoms sectors.
First I would kick eircon where it hurts and use a CPO to buy the entire telecom network. This would be placed into the hands of a state-run, non-profit company. The sole responsibility of this company is to maintain and manage the countries telecom infrastructure and charge other companies to use it. So they would charge eircom and BT in the same way. Eircom could keep their broadband equipment but since they no longer would own the exchanges or the phyisical lines, other companies like BT and Smart could get equal access, paying the same rates as eircom would have to. If a company couldnt or wouldnt pay their bills, rather then being wreckless and cutting them off cold, a la eircon, all outbound calls would be blocked except calls to 999/112 and 1800 numbers. Inbound calls would not be affected. Customers would then default to eircom retail as the USO.

Companies like Vodafone would not be allowed to continue fleecing customers as they do, and would have their licences terminated if they did not agree to host MVNOs as 3 are being forced to.

Risk Equalisation would be scrapped post haste so Bupa, Vivas and possibly Axa can provide valuable competition. VHI are a company, when companies cannot compete they die, tough ****, no running to the government to bail you out.

Lennoxschips

Lemming wrote:

Lets not forget that we'd have a consultation period, analysis & design, implementation, unions demanding recompense, and all manner of teething problems in implementing such a system. Factor in the fact that it's a government-funded venture and you can multiply the 'gravy-train' factor by a number of ten. And of course the advertising & support required to notify customers of the changes & implications.

ESB already meter houses don't they? I was just proposing a change to the billing system. A software update at most.

SeanW

If I were Taoiseach I'd do the following:

Energy, Environment and Agriculture:
1: Mandate that all diesel fuels sold in Ireland contain a certain amount of biodiesel.
2: Assess the latent capacity of a potentially renewed sugarbeet industry to produce ethanol, then mandate that all petroleum gasoline fuels sold in Ireland contain X% Irish sugarbeet ethanol where X = Ethanol capacity / Petroleum demand * 100/1
3: Abolish fuel excise taxes on biofuels.

4: Through the ESB, put all domestic users on Nightsaver plans. This will encourage less peak-time energy use and should mean less use of more expensive, inefficient backup generating stations.
5: Beef up the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland to a fully mandated Radiological Regulation Commission. Give it more power to deal with anything involving radioactive substances.
6: Amend the 1999 Electricity Regulation Act removing the ban on Nuclear Power, replacing it with a stringent licensing procedure for nuclear reactors, applications to be filed with the RRC from point 5.
7: Begin a nuclear programme to replace fossil fuel-fired power stations. Contract fuel services including reprocessing to the French (thus avoiding the national embarassment factor of going from demanding Sellafields closure to being its newest customer)
8: Immediately take a move to increase national fleet of installed Wind capacity at least 3-fold.

9: Packaging >_< there's just too damn much of it on the things we buy! I would seek legal mandate to limit excessive packaging and heavily tax non-biodegradeable packing such as plastic to promote paper and cardboard packaging instead where such packaging is required but flexible.

Transport:
1: Priority number one in Transport for me would be sorting out the driver testing system. We currently have people waiting ridiculous lengths of time for a driving test, with many centres keeping applicants waiting for over a year! This is a national emergency - or at least it would be in any other country - and demands immediate attention. Any new parternship talks would place the health of the testing system above all other concerns and the government side would draw a red line under its right to do whatever is necessary to attain and maintain low waiting times.

This would pave the way for lower insurace rates for young people, and for more/better enforced restrictions on learner drivers (the only people carrying provisionals should be people who need them to learn to drive - someone who can drive well should easily obtain a full license)
2: Focus any new road projects on Dual Carraigeway by-passes and on the non-national road network as opposed to long distance motorway projects. Do not allow tolls on town bypasses because that just encourages toll avoiders to go through the town that's supposed to be bypassed which is just stupid. Any tolls should be in rural areas with only (strictly enforced) low-speed R roads alternative.
3: Shift the focus of capital development into public transport - expediate the plans for Transport 21 in Dublin City and draft new Luas lines for Cork, Limerick and maybe Galway.
4: Unify the fare structures for Dublin city transport, Luas, Dart, DB etc under a single zonal fare structure administrated by the Dublin Transport Authority. Under a fare structure similar to that of Berlin, Munich, London etc, the passenger pays for crossing zones rather than changing modes. Also have a unified system map showing DART, Luas and main bus routes on all trains trams and buses instead of the "map our patch" maps that appear on trains and trams today.
5: Electrify the mainline from Dublin to Cork including the branch to Limerick and the Cork Suburban lines.
6: Abolish car tax and replace it with higher petroleum distillate taxes.

Education:
1: Limit compulsion in 2nd level to English and Maths ONLY. Everything else would be based on an elective system, subjects such as Geography, History, Irish Language, Art, Sciences, Construction studies, Home Economics, Drivers Education, Computing and foreign languages etc. should be grouped into menus from which a student must pick one - totalling 5 elective choices and the 2 compulsories for a 7-subject leaving cert plus whatever modules.
2: Leave 3rd level as it stands but ensure that the system can handle growth.
3: Address as a matter of urgency, any schools that are still in poor physical condition.

Economics and Social Justice.
1: Any new partnership agreement should guarantee all workers index-linked (or a good estimation for future index link) to inflation. Any raises over and above the rate of inflation should be based on productivity. This goes doubly for civil servants and politicians.
2: Maintain low corporate and low-end income taxes and stop funding top-rate reductions with stealth taxes, increase the top tax rate by 1%.

MontgomeryClift

Deleted User wrote:

Hoverboards for everyone.

That sounds like a Fianna Fáil plan. I wouldn't be surprised of Cullen was right now thinking up a lie about the probable cost of the hoverboards.