2016 is an opportunity to change our old ways of governing
WE ARE on the cusp of a new year and of a new government. Enda Kenny needs a new five-point plan. Remember those punchy lines, like “We will create a completely new health system” and “smaller, better government, with the people’s money spent wisely on vital public services”, not forgetting “a political system that achieves more and costs less, with the government leading by example”?
Now, forget them. On the eve of our historic centenary, it’s time for fresh thinking. Who better to provide it, I hear you shout, than my good self?
This five-point plan is worthy of us in 2016, because it is about us managing our resources while being aware that we share a small planet with the rest of the people of the world.
1. We will mark the 1916 centenary with a massive capital investment plan
2016 should be remembered for investment in our future, not for tax cuts. We need a building initiative reminiscent of the great nationalist explosion in public housing at the foundation of the State.
Now, in a more populated and much richer country, we have committed to building fewer than 7,000 social houses, up to 2017, which is a start, but still too few. We need public transport infrastructure, such as Metro North, and a Luas for Cork and Galway, fast-tracked to restore our quality of life and meet our emissions targets under the Paris Agreement. If we doubled the education budget of €8.6bn, we could provide free, high-quality education to a growing population, so it would be fool-hardy to axe the €4.5bn in USC income. We will return to Republican principles and provide free primary and secondary education to all our citizens, regardless of creed and according to need.
We will ban voluntary donations. We will ban fees in State-funded schools. By September, the scam of parents buying new books every year will also be banned and technology will replace these books as much as it can. Access to schools will depend on where a pupil lives, to maximise walking and cycling, and baptismal certificates will be banned as entry tickets into faith-based schools. In the context of what’s needed at primary and secondary level, we do not have the funds to provide free third-level education, if we are to maintain a high standard. University fees will remain, with a carefully structured, State-backed loan system in place, and an adequately-funded grant system for less-well-off students.
2. We will commit to using our natural resources as cleanly and efficiently as humanly possible
We will stop burning coal to generate electricity in Moneypoint, Co. Clare. This is the most noxious of all fossil fuels, emitting five million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. It is filthy
If we switch Moneypoint off, we will cut out the biggest single source of our greenhouse gases. This would be a sign that the recent climate agreement in Paris means something.
We will stop tearing up our bogs to fuel peat-burning power stations in Edenderry, Rhode and Shannonbridge. The Government will reverse its stupid decision to keep burning our bogs until 2030, when there will barely be a sod left. The money we save by not subsidising the burning of peat will be reinvested in retraining and redeploying Bord na Mona employees in renewable energy and in a massive, new, Government-funded, retro-fitting scheme, which compels public buildings to be energy-efficient and offers householders a mixture of grants, tax-free allowances and smart loans.
As part of a new commitment to the proper use of our natural resources, we will tear up every announcement made so far about Irish Water. We will provide each citizen with an annual allowance of water adequate for his or her personal use. A metred charge will apply to all who use more than that amount.
The water conservation grant in no way supported any reduction in water use. Instead, these funds will be invested to help people save water by fixing leaks in homes, investing in the water infrastructure, and by encouraging the installation of rain-water harvesting systems.
3. We will publish a costed plan to provide free, universal healthcare for all within a decade
We’ve flirted with a universal insurance model, we’ve flirted with a private/public model. They don’t work. Instead of abolishing it, the HSE will become the NHS for Ireland.
The implications of this route for health workers should be made as plain as possible as early as possible, and negotiations with their unions will begin immediately. The implications of a universal State healthcare service, in terms of tax take, will be honestly spelled out to the Irish people, so they can vote on it in the next election.
4. We will commit to scrapping the property tax and bringing in a site value tax
People will pay tax on the value of any site they own, including the site their home occupies.
They will partially restore to the State the investment put into resourced areas (the ones with Luas and swimming pools and parks) and withhold funds from the State where there are few resources, like wild west Donegal, where I am now writing, whenever the internet is working.
Crucially, it will mean that developers will have to pay tax on valuable sites, whether they develop them or not, which will encourage them to use them or lose them.
5. We will measure the success of our plans by means of a happiness index, not GDP or GNP
There is a movement, led by organisations such as the New Economics Foundation, that has an alternative measure of progress. It doesn’t reward economic growth, if it means war and the exploitation of people and the environment. It is a movement that knows how to reward care, peace and environmental responsibility. Ireland ranks 73rd among the 150 nations, measured by life expectancy, happiness and ecological footprint, and we are behind countries as diverse as Sweden, the UK, Palestine and Costa Rica.
We will aim to scramble up that list, instead of filling the latest prescription from the OECD. If happiness is our target, there is some chance more of us would have what we all want: a peaceful and happy 2016.
It is about us managing our resources while being aware that we share a small planet
