54 Billion - How would you spend it ?

Lets just imagine your Minister for Finance and you decide to borrow 54 thousand million on a whim.....
what would you spend it on?


a tunnel to Wales or Scotland?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/4121001.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Sea_tunnel

High Speed Rail to all the cities?

ortugal estimates that the high speed rail line "connecting Lisbon with Madrid and with Porto, due to be operational by 2013, is estimated to cost around 7.2" billion Euros, according to Forbes. Compare the costs to the new international airport near Lisbon, estimated at 3 billion Euros, and you can see why people are questioning the need.

http://goeurope.about.com/b/2005/12/09/the-cost-of-high-speed-rail.htm

Plans for a major new high-speed London to Scotland rail line have been set out by Network Rail (NR) - and the price tag is £34 billion.
But train bosses claim the service would eventually pay for itself 1.8 times over by generating almost £55 billion of value.
With trains travelling at 200mph, journey times to Scotland would be cut to a little over two hours.
The line would run from central London, via Birmingham, Manchester, Warrington, Liverpool and Preston to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Thats a long winding route!!!!!
http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/article.aspx?cp-documentid=149373884


Maybe you woud built 50 or 60 hospitals and staff them?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0616/1224248898639.html


Maybe motorways all over the place?
It is around €10-€11 million per kilometre for motorway

http://www.nra.ie/News/PressReleases/htmltext,16555,en.html
http://www.nra.ie/News/PressReleases/htmltext,16181,en.html
so 54 thousand million would go a long way


or a combination of some?

Or maybe you would buy some worthless loans?

greendom

I'd give it to those poor, impoverished bankers. hear they've been through a bad time lately

Amhran Nua

€54 billion doesn't buy what it used to, thats for sure. We've a full shopping list already made out here, and it certainly wouldn't cover all that. It would get the ball rolling on most of it however, and several of the schemes (notably education) are fairly self financing. The rest would have to be covered as time goes on.

Handing it to the banks more or less ensures they won't be lending any time soon, ironically.

How about we buy 54 billion worth of Dutch Tulips

could we spare 4.8 billion aside for a Dublin metro?
Dublin metro plans set to cost taxpayer billions: ThePost.ie

Sure while we are at it we could put a Luas in around Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/?c=ireland&jp=cwididsneykf
http://www.munster-express.ie/local-news/waterford-luas-feasibility-study/


Gas thing is we could do this and would have tens of billions left over yet we want to waste 54 billion on NAMA. :mad:

The Minstrel

Deleted User wrote: »

could we spare 4.8 billion aside for a Dublin metro?
Dublin metro plans set to cost taxpayer billions: ThePost.ie

Sure while we are at it we could put a Luas in around Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/?c=ireland&jp=cwididsneykf
http://www.munster-express.ie/local-news/waterford-luas-feasibility-study/


Gas thing is we could do this and would have tens of billions left over yet we want to waste 54 billion on NAMA. :mad:

While I think the Metro would be nice, I'm happy enough to just take the bus. Also, why stop there with the list of places to put in a tram system...why not build tram lines in Kinnegad and Stradbally too? Perhaps a monorail in Ballybofey?

The Minstrel

The Minstrel wrote: »

While I think the Metro would be nice, I'm happy enough to just take the bus. Also, why stop there with the list of places to put in a tram system...why not build tram lines in Kinnegad and Stradbally too? Perhaps a monorail in Ballybofey?

Perhaps...be better than some overvalued fields in Roscommon

ednwireland

The Minstrel wrote: »

W Perhaps a monorail in Ballybofey?

Lyle Lanley: Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine,
Bona fide,
Electrified,
Six-car
Monorail!
What'd I say?

Ned Flanders: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: What's it called?

Patty+Selma: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: That's right! Monorail!

etc

sorry thats about how much i'm interested anymore

DanGlee

I wouldn't give a ***in dime back to the gov in this country! (or the UK!)

I'd spend it on a good foreign football team

Let the Gov suffer, they got this country into this rot and they should get it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:

Jump ship... bail out quick!

cavedave

I would cover Croke park pitch in 20 euro notes 2000 deep. Or you could have a line of 2 euro coins one and a half times around the world.

Or you could buy enough wind turbines to produce 54 gigawatts (1 million per megawatt)

orourkeda

A few pints.

orourkeda

orourkeda wrote: »

A few pints.

a few? At say €5 a pop you could have 10,800,000,000 pints

If you drank one every 10 minutes it would take you over 2 million years to drink them all so you better be sharing :mad:

orourkeda

Deleted User wrote: »

a few? At say €5 a pop you could have 108,000,000,000 pints

If you drank one every 10 minutes it would take you over 2 million years to drink them all so you better be sharing :mad:

A 2 Million year session. Hoorah.

1 Billion ish pints is a fair amount of scoops to be getting through alright.

orourkeda

orourkeda wrote: »

A 2 Million year session. Hoorah.

1 Billion ish pints is a fair amount of scoops to be getting through alright.

ahem.....10.8 billion pints

Dravokivich

lots and lots of Jellys...

-Drav!

orourkeda

Deleted User wrote: »

ahem.....10.8 billion pints

Damn typos

orourkeda

Dravokivich wrote: »

lots and lots of Jellys...

-Drav!

Throw in some werthers originals and white bonbons

SkepticOne

Property. You can't go wrong with property.

Liam Byrne

Pay Fianna Fail off to get out of politics forever, thereby allowing someone with the best interests of the country to get into power ?

orourkeda

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Pay Fianna Fail off to get out of politics forever, thereby allowing someone with the best interests of the country to get into power ?

Pay Mary Coughlan to teach Science.

spadder

I'd give it to Bertie, send him to the Gi-Gi's and he'll comeback with €200bn in a brown enevelope.

orourkeda

spadder wrote: »

I'd give it to Bertie, send him to the Gi-Gi's and he'll comeback with €200bn in a brown enevelope.

He already got a job as a tipster with the news of the world

ei.sdraob

ill buy every horse in Ireland and set them free

halkar

Give to tax payers as a xmas bonus in their pay check. You get almost 30% back instantly in taxes. The rest of it will be spent, another 21% on vat and some on vrt. More than half will be back to government within few months. The rest may create some jobs take few of the dole, saving few yoyos for the government and\or save some jobs that possible will be gone after xmas. As for the banks, they may get some of it if people decide to pay some of their loans and credit cards. Let the fat cats to move closer to cliffs of Moher

mrgaa1

• Build my own roads around Ireland and put a toll plaza on each one charging 10c everytime you go through - each vehicle can't be charged more than 1 euro per day.
• Clear all my family and friends debt
• Buy 2 row of seats in the Hogan Stand for myself and friends for life.
• Keep a billion for myself
• Then with the rest I'd give every adult in the country who votes in the next general election an even share of the money - its the only way to get a definite figure and I'd say we're guaranteed a full turn-out

OR

I'd loan some money to some country in deep **** in return for land, good repayment terms and ensure that my family and friends pay no tax EVER and free healthcare.

Rockshamrover

Start an Irish space program and put an Irish man on the moon (Brian Cowan):D

Or

Buy 54 billion scratch cards from the lotto. Employ 40000 people to scratch them and use the profits to start a property empire.

Dankoozy

FREE PINEAPPLES FOR ALL!