We need to end bureaucracy and reach out to rebuild economy

AT A time of crisis it can pay to be counter-intuitive, to have ideas that seem completely at odds with perceived wisdom.

One successful entrepreneur, an American based in Cork who has become familiar to the nation because of his role on the Dragon’s Den tv programme, has one such three point plan of the kind you are almost certain to never hear from the politicians (of all kinds) we elect to lead us: he wants to bring 75,000 highly skilled foreigners per annum to work into the country, double the population of the country over the next 20 years and develop a special relationship with China that would allow automatic 30 day visitor visas and the right of residency for its citizens if an educational course is completed in the country.

Now that is counter-intuitive when you consider that unemployment has soared to over 14% of the workforce, with over 450,000 people in receipt of employment related social welfare, and that emigration, especially among the young, is soaring again. Where would 75,000 extra workers a year get jobs when we don’t have enough for the people living here already? How would we cope with the extra demands upon health and education services if we had to cope with all of those extra people and their families and don’t have enough money as it is? What would happen to Irish culture if you had such a massive influx of foreigners?