real ideas to lift the economy

rodento

Provide 75% tax credits on development costs and land purchase

robp

nice_guy80 wrote: »

I like the fishing idea

Fianna Fail sold the Irish fishing industry away when the CFP and CAP was introduced in the 1970s. they were more interested in helping the farmers

We have huge fishing grounds, but a very small fishing fleet
Think of the employment a proper fishing fleet could bring to isolated communities of Ireland around the coast.

If you sit and look at the actual figures of what the Irish boats are taking in its very sobering reading. The fact is the fish just aren't there in the numbers they once were. For instance, experts reckon even with a completion cessation of all cod fishing we will never see the return of cod stocks of the 1960s.
An extreme example is the Irish sea urchin industry. We once had an extremely lucrative sea urchin fishing trade. It was so important the price of air freight on Aer Lingus flights was calculated based on the quantity of sea urchins but there was no regulation. In the 1970s we were experting 500 tones. These days to export even 5 tons is doing good. Its a real tragedy that shouldn't have been allowed to happen. This is no time to expand fishing fleets.

maninasia

Gurgle wrote: »

So for best yields of cash crops we need a 4-year rotation: Sugar beet -> Rape -> Garlic -> Marijuana

Careful now, garlic could get you 5 years in jail!

maninasia

bbam wrote: »

This isn't really a runner..
We don't have sufficient quality land to grow the fuel crops..
Even if we did use the available land where would we get food crops from? Oats, wheat, barley and potatoes are currently grown on any land that is suitable for crops in Ireland, growing bio-fuel crops displaces these and reduces the available food supplies.. this leads to increases in basic food prices, so we may have cheaper "green" fuels but can't afford the basic food elements that we need...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0917/1224324089691.html

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2012/09/biofuels-driving-up-prices

It makes absolutely no sense from an economic standpoint. The government would have to spend money supporting the purchase of this more expensive fuel and the land is worth more when used to raise valuable food crops or organic type farming. Countries like Brazil or the US or Canada are better suited for doing this...and even then the program in the US is a complete disaster giving almost no extra energy output, uses huge amounts of water and creates a massive distortion in the cost of corn.

Now if you said raise organic rapeseed or organic sugar beet or something along those lines you might have a more economic proposition!

maninasia

maynooth_rules wrote: »

I know its only a small thing but in regards to tourism I really think a bigger push is needed to get Continental Europeans over here. Work with Ryanair, give them what they want for a trial period next summer and see will we get the numbers here as a result of that. Again this silly 'gathering' idea will focus on those furthest away in America and Oz. It seems like we are selective on our tourists and we are simply not doing enough to get those German, french, Spanish etc tourists who could come over here on a cheap Ryanair flight.
Also maybe discounted travel similar to our pensioners free travel passses for OAPs from the EU might help.

The money is in Asia and the Middle East and Russia, these are the areas that should be targeted. China alone is adding millions of first time foreign tourists every year!

jasonmcco

invest in a coastal shell fishing industry.

Belfast

Sell or rent Uninhabited islands of Ireland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Uninhabited_islands_of_Ireland to the Seasteading Institute
http://www.seasteading.org/

" Libertarian Island: A billionaire's utopia
PayPal founder Peter Thiel has put $1.25 million toward building floating, autonomous countries at sea. Is he serious?
posted on August 18, 2011, at 12:00 PM
Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel is financially backing a new island country that would be devoted to the implementation of libertarian policies.

Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel is financially backing a new island country that would be devoted to the implementation of libertarian policies. Photo: Paul Linse/Corbis

History is littered with failed libertarian utopias, but PayPal cofounder and billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel believes an artificial floating nation-state 200 miles off the coast of San Francisco could change that, according to a profile in Details magazine. And Thiel is putting his money where his mouth is, giving $1.25 million so far the Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to launching small countries on oil-rig–type platforms in international waters. Here, a guide to the "vivid, wild-eyed dream" of a Libertarian Island:

Why build a new island nation?
"There is no such thing as unclaimed land," says the Seasteading Institute, so starting from scratch in international waters "is the only option to create new societies on Earth." Essentially, explains Detail's Jonathan Miles, the autonomous island would be "a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: No welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."

How would Libertarian Island work?
At first, the new city state would be built on mobile, diesel-powered floating platforms that house up to 270 residents, but Seasteading chief Petri Friedman hopes to have tens of millions of residents living on hundreds of banded-together platforms by 2050. Within a few decades, the goal is to establish United Nations–recognized sovereign nations that get their food and energy from trading with other countries.

Is this a serious proposal?
Yes. Friedman plans to start next year by launching a flotilla of offices off San Francisco's coast, with full-time floating settlements in seven years. Friedman and Thiel expect the "entrepreneurial zeal" of seasteading to prevail where other libertarian utopias have failed. Many people scoff at the idea, but "that's a good thing," Thiel said at a 2009 Seasteading Institute Conference. "Since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

What could go wrong?
Let's see, says John Cole in Balloon Juice. Floating cities, constructed under super-loose building standards, in the middle of the ocean? The rest of us will pay a fortune in rescue costs. And these isolated communities will be "populated by people desperate enough to work for less than minimum wage with easy access to weapons of all sorts," says Allahpundit in Hot Air. This could be "the start of a magical utopia where government is small, freedom is plentiful, and the only limit to the pursuit of happiness is your ability to swim. Or, it could be Lord of the Flies." Oh please, put "cameras everywhere!" says Ann Althouse in her blog. "We want to watch your reality show."

What do other libertarians think?
"Jaded curmudgeons such as myself have witnessed numerous of these projects," says Lew Rockwell in his blog. Thiel is welcome to spend whatever he wants on his vision, but "the real battle for the future of liberty and the survival of the values of Western civilization is right here in our own backyard," not in some offshore utopia. "I think this is a great idea," says Dan Mitchell in International Liberty. But you won't automatically "escape the IRS by moving your money to these fiscal havens." And finding "libertarian nirvana" off chilly San Francisco? "I vote for the Caribbean."
http://theweek.com/article/index/218393/libertarian-island-a-billionaires-utopia