What policies would you like to see introduced in Ireland

devlinio

If you were a politician, what would you like to see introduced to make Ireland better?

• I'd like canbis legalised. If nothing else, a lot of tax revenue could be raised
• Reduction in plastic usage. I don't think anything is being to curtail plastic usage. I hate plastic, and the cronic waste. Especially when you go shopping for examples. Fruit does not need to be wrapped in plastic. We do not need 20 plastic bags to carry our shopping. I'd introduce a hefty plastic levy.
• Harsher penalites on animal cruelty, rape, and murder convitions. The punishments are laughable in this country.

Charlie19

Lower tax rates on overtime be nice, I dont see the need to crucify people who put in extra hours.

Ten of Swords

devlinio wrote: »

Reduction in plastic usage. I don't think anything is being to curtail plastic usage. I hate plastic, and the cronic waste. Especially when you go shopping for examples. Fruit does not need to be wrapped in plastic. We do not need 20 plastic bags to carry our shopping. I'd introduce a hefty plastic levy.

They introduced a plastic bag levy about 15 years ago, if you believe the stats it accounted for a 90% drop in plastic usage at the time so if you think it's particularly bad now (it's not) try to imagine what it was like back then when plastic bags were free. It's still in effect btw

devlinio

Charlie19 wrote: »

Lower tax rates on overtime be nice, I dont see the need to crucify people who put in extra hours.

I agree with this. There needs to be more tax bands to cater for different amounts of incomes. 40% on everything over everything is sick.

I don't agree with USC on principle. But that way of income taxation should replace the current income tax band.

devlinio

Ten of Swords wrote: »

They introduced a plastic bag levy about 15 years ago, if you believe the stats it accounted for a 90% drop in plastic usage at the time so if you think it's particularly bad now (it's not) try to imagine what it was like back then when plastic bags were free. It's still in effect btw

That's why I think it should be increased. I know people will say that you're just taxing the situation away. But the only way people change their habits, is if it hits them in the pocket.

buried

Let me buy a beer whenever I want to for the love of holy f**k

Ted Johnson

The death penalty.

corner of hells

Conscription for everyone between the ages of 18 and 24 .
None of this serving for a year or so helping old people or working in the community , it's the full six years in the army and no leave for your first five years either.
And if you're caught with drugs in your system or an STI , it's another six years.

bodice ripper

Zero tolerance on using the car horn as the ah-jaysis-howehye button.

Ten of Swords

The day-fine system which is currently in use in most baltic states

Without going into an overly complicated explanation - fines for minor offenses (speeding, littering etc) are calculated based on your net worth. A rich guy can get a fine of hundreds of thousands whereas someone on a more modest means gets a much smaller fine.

Omackeral

Anyone that says ''this country is a joke'' or ''only in Ireland'' should be shot with balls of Shane Mc Gowan's shite.

Reptilia10

Tough laws on delinquency and anti social behaviour.

BalcombeSt4

Introduction of Workers control through workers councils & committes.

The Nationalization of key industries, energy, banking, natural resources, transport etc...

De-criminalization of all drugs.

Holocaust denial should be made illegal like in some other European countries.

Junkyard Tom

A complete ban on Dublin accents.

Purple Mountain

Abolition of concurrent sentences in the justice system.

Charles Babbage

I'd ban onions, and seize them at the airport.

vaccination denial would be an offence, as would revisionism.

s14driftking

Hanging and deportation of the new Irish for commiting a crime.

Realt Dearg Sec

s14driftking wrote: »

Hanging and deportation of the new Irish for commiting a crime.

Why would you bother deporting them after they've been hanged?

prinzeugen

BalcombeSt4 wrote: »

Introduction of Workers control through workers councils & committes.

The Nationalization of key industries, energy, banking, natural resources, transport etc...
.

Yeah like that worked out well for countries East of the Berlin Wall.

s14driftking

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

s14driftking wrote: »

Hanging and deportation of the new Irish for commiting a crime.

Why would you bother deporting them after they've been hanged?

All depends on the severity of the crime. Small crime 2 strikes deportation. High crime aggravated assault murder etc hanging.

Realt Dearg Sec

s14driftking wrote: »

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

s14driftking wrote: »

Hanging and deportation of the new Irish for commiting a crime.

Why would you bother deporting them after they've been hanged?

All depends on the severity of the crime. Small crime 2 strikes deportation. High crime aggravated assault murder etc hanging.

Good idea. Everyone knows murders by Irish people aren't as bad.

Your Face

Encourage multi-national companies to set up operations in areas in need of jobs, within reason.

Ongoing law reform.

Increase the tax threshold on earnings.

No state support for any religion.

General engineering programs to be thought in all schools.

Physical education to be mandatory in all schools. Not a Games class but a fitness class.

Abolish the Seanad.

'Broken windows' and RICO-like policing practices.

Stricter immigration policies.

Expand free training courses and initiatives such as Springboard.

Better architecture (aesthetics) and infrastructure.

friendlyfun

Charles Babbage wrote: »

I'd ban onions, and seize them at the airport.

vaccination denial would be an offence, as would revisionism.

So you would want to cancel how people want to cancel their interpretation of the past?

TheValeyard

Gloomtastic!

Banish the word ‘Entitlement’ from the English language.

Tell me how

devlinio wrote: »

If you were a politician, what would you like to see introduced to make Ireland better?

• Reduction in plastic usage. I don't think anything is being to curtail plastic usage. I hate plastic, and the cronic waste. Especially when you go shopping for examples. Fruit does not need to be wrapped in plastic. We do not need 20 plastic bags to carry our shopping. I'd introduce a hefty plastic levy.

+1 for me on that but the problem with a levy is that people will become accustomed to paying it. Maybe ban sale of items wrapped in excess packaging?

Also

• I would like to see stronger enforcement of quality cycling and public transport facilities. Particularly the cycling. I think every school (national and secondary) should promote cycling to it and it become a requirement that the infrastructure is in place so that any child from within 5 km can cycle to it.
• I would like to see a policy of older dwellings being refurbished ahead of new builds.
• Meaningful promotion of sustainable enterprises in areas outside of the largest cities. Still urban located but that might allow 10-15 people to stay and work in the likes of Kilrush, Bundoran, Moate, Bantry etc.
• Location of National facilities outside of Dublin. Whether hospital, crime lab, concert venue, whatever, for at least the next 30 years, first preference should be to find meaningful ways to promote Cork, Galway, Limerick ahead of Dublin etc (I've nothing against it, I like the city but we have 33% of population in 1.3% of the land area of the country. It's not ideal)
• A massive scheme of the planting of native forests in every county. Plant them on land which has been left fallow or is not suitable for agriculture. Consider walking paths and associated facilities throughout them from the outset.

Sure I will think of some more later.

suicide_circus

everyone pays some income tax however small. not the current situation where up to a million part time or low earners contribute nothing to the tax take.

massive investment in domestic industries, need to get away from FDI dependence

end concurrent sentencing for repeat offenders and increase prison capacity.

decriminalise drug possession.

Wanderer78

Land value tax

the banning of all black bin waste materials to be sold in the country, forced reduction of all other materials entering our market

increase in corporation tax, this increase to be accepted in stocks and shares of the corporations, and placed in a sovereign wealth fund.

Introduction of a public banking system

Employ some non neoliberal/neoclassically trained economists, sack those that are, they can take their supply and demand nonsense with them

Force all corporations to increase pay to all employees, possibly by paying them in stocks and shares. Index link all pay within corporations.

Enforce some sort of control on our banking sector, sack and jail individuals if needs be

Major investments in green tech, and movement away from fossil fuels

OldMrBrennan83

Allow free choice again and stop using everything as a means of dipping hands in our pockets, the environment being the latest blanket "grab all" excuse.

James Bond Junior

A flat rate of tax on cars. I have two cars with a combined age of 34 years, it costs €2200 a year to tax them both at €1100 each. My other half's 4 year old car is €190. Where is the logic in that?

JeffKenna

Three strike rule like in the US.

It's a crazy situation that you can have people with 100's of convictions walking the street committing further crime.

Children's allowance should stop after the second child.

backspin.

Age of adult criminal responsibility reduced to 16.

Wanderer78

JeffKenna wrote:

It's a crazy situation that you can have people with 100's on convictions walking the street committing further crime.

Maybe we should be more proactive in trying to prevent crime in the first place

JeffKenna wrote:

Children's allowance should stop after the second child.

Would this encourage more crime?

Atlantic Dawn

Kneecapping for anyone who puts their feet up on seats on public transport, their limp would remind others not to do it.

backspin.

Do away with childrens allowance and use the money to provide creches for the children of working people.

JeffKenna

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Maybe we should be more proactive in trying to prevent crime in the first place



Would this encourage more crime?

How so?

Of course we should be proactive in trying to prevent crime but it shouldn't be an either or situation.

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

Wanderer78

JeffKenna wrote:

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

Ah don't mind that nonsense, it generally doesn't work in preventing crime, there's loads of research on the root causes of crime, has been for decades, but we ve largely decided to ignore it, or act poorly on it

suicide_circus

James Bond Junior wrote: »

A flat rate of tax on cars. I have two cars with a combined age of 34 years, it costs €2200 a year to tax them both at €1100 each. My other half's 4 year old car is €190. Where is the logic in that?

well what engines are in your cars? what are the emissions?

OldMrBrennan83

suicide_circus wrote: »

well what engines are in your cars? what are the emissions?

Zero emissions to make a new car.

A proper decentralisation of Ireland. Not one where a government department moves to the constituency of the minister of that department, obviously. A commission like an electoral boundaries' commission that is impartial and using demography and geographical information to reshape settlement in Ireland should be established.
The whole place has shifted to Dublin in the past 50-60 years, and spreading the resources of the state across the state would solve an enormous number of problems.

Also, related to the above: implement Wicklow County Council planning permission rules across Ireland. It's the wild west everywhere else, with zero respect for the traditional built heritage of each area and any cultureless eejit allowed to blight an area with his embarrassing symbol of "success" sticking out like a sore thumb on a gorgeous landscape.

Gorteen

A change of culture which holds people to account, whether they be politicians, white-collar workers, public servants, convicted criminals

suicide_circus

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

Zero emissions to make a new car.

of course plenty of emissions just saying thats how the tax is calculated. its not a secret formula.

Gorteen

Gorteen wrote: »

A change of culture which holds people to account, whether they be politicians, white-collar workers, public servants, convicted criminals

stay classy

OldMrBrennan83

suicide_circus wrote: »

of course plenty of emissions just saying thats how the tax is calculated. its not a secret formula.

Yeah that's how it's calculated and that calculation is what the poster said they'd like to see changed. That's the whole idea behind the thread. If not you could just reply to every post in it with "yeah but that's how it is".

mickoneill31

Mandatory minimum sentences for anything over 5 convictions.
e.g.
Conviction 6 - 1 year plus whatever the normal sentence is.
Conviction 7 - 2 years plus whatever the normal sentence is.
And if you get caught and charged for more than one crime then the sentences run consecutively.

So if you get a judge that likes to give suspended sentences, fine. You'll get the suspended sentence plus time in jail.

Kinda fed up reading about guys with 20 previous convictions getting conviction number 21 suspended because they have kids or had a hard upbringing. Thats all well and good until you or somebody you know is victim number 22.

Edit: and this doesn't mean you ignore crime prevention methods. Of course not. Continue with education and rejuvenation and whatever else, but there are some scumbags that just don't care. I don't care about punishing criminals, I care about society being protected from them.

mickoneill31

Politicians who are proven to have lied in the dail or in the media get barred from being a politician for 10 years.

I'm not talking about a mistake, everybody makes those. I'm talking about the kind of system where they've ended up in the UK or the US where politicians will just double down and treble down on provable lies and some people keep falling for it.

And, no that wouldn't mean that all of our politicians would be barred from day one

Sultan of Bling

Wanderer78 wrote:

Maybe we should be more proactive in trying to prevent crime in the first place

I agree.

Anyone with over 10 convictions should be shot.

kevthegaff

Accountability among politicians
Reduction in accident/claims fraud
Reduction in S/W based on crimes committed and reduction if long term s
Everyone pay 10 euro a week inc pensioners and s/w for health
No ethnic minorities
Land tax and water tax
Actually collect corporation tax
Put legal alcohol limit back to 2017 levels
Legalise canabis and cocaine
Stricter limits on gambling

Thingymebob

1. Increase penalties for violent crimes, sexual offences etc
2. End concurrent sentencing
3. Three strikes and you’re automatically on the highest sentence
4. Custodial sentences for theft (shoplifting and burglary), assault etc
5. Social housing eligibility audits every 18mths/2 years; if you’re oversupplied, you move, if your circumstances have improved, you move - it’s a hand up, not a handout
6. Long term unemployed (6mths+), you must attend training or internships Monday to Friday unless at an interview. Failure to appear cancels your dole.
6.a. The WRC would be prevented from claiming DES/DSP are unfair - your dole money is your pay
6.b. Those in internships would receive a transport allowance
7. Those in social housing on employment benefits would be prevented from travelling abroad; if Joe Murphy who goes to work 5 days a week and houses himself and family by himself can’t afford two weeks all inclusive in Spain, Ciara who gets the lot for free off the taxpayer doesn’t get to go either.
8. Scrap the child benefit - paying people to breed (and often not the families who we want reproducing). Use it for childcare for workers.
9. Delinquent children; parents are charged with neglect and liable for costs unless the child is surrendered to borstal
10. Introduce noise laws where the guards can actually intervene; confiscate stereo equipment, arrest them for disturbing the peace.
11. Social housing priorities key workers (emergency services, teachers, council services)
12. Turn down a social housing home once only; second time you’re off the list
13. Curfew - all children under the age of 10 home by 8pm unless accompanied by a responsible adult, age of 13 by 9 and age of 16 by 10
14. Remove plastic packaging off fresh food and allow fill a bag Why does a cucumber need to be plastic wrapped? Why be forced to buy ten apples when you only need two? Food waste and plastic waste!

James Bond Junior

suicide_circus wrote: »

well what engines are in your cars? what are the emissions?

A 2.4 diesel at 179g/km and 2.5 petrol at 215g/km. Hers is 115g/km. Hers are lower but isn't better for the environment to use a car until it isn't useable anymore rather than a continuous use of precious and environmentally damaging resources to produce a constant cycle of new cars?

Mr. teddywinkles

suicide_circus wrote: »

everyone pays some income tax however small. not the current situation where up to a million part time or low earners contribute nothing to the tax take.

massive investment in domestic industries, need to get away from FDI dependence

end concurrent sentencing for repeat offenders and increase prison capacity.

decriminalise drug possession.

Good luck getting people to work in these jobs so. Proper pension scheme for every worker in the country no matter your job type. Part time or full. This needs high priority.