Yesterday, a new website called yourcountryyourcall.com was launched. It’s a competition to ‘ignite imaginations and inspire thinking’ and just to add a bit of incentive, there’s €200k up for grabs in prizemoney.
Taken from the site, “The goal is to pick two truly transformational proposals so big that, when implemented, could secure prosperity and jobs for Ireland”.
So if you have ideas that can change the way the country works, for the better, and preferably earn or save the country some cash, you can submit them to this site and win €100k for your troubles (there’ll be two winners of €100k), plus hopefully see your idea put in to action.
Although the website launch was a bit of a disaster yesterday (they were promoting two separate urls and using iframes), i like this project and the people behind it must get credit. The submitted ideas are open for all to view and rate which i believe is crucial for this project to work properly.
It’s also worth noting that this IS NOT a government funded project… but of course it should be – there should be loads of these sort of competitions in place with funding and support waiting for the eventual winners.
THIS is creativity at it’s best. I’m already watching the ideas flow in and they are in turn filling me with more ideas. This is the sort of dream i had for iwantideas.com… in fact, it’s exactly what iwantideas.com is all about and remarkably similar, only i can’t put up the €200k in prizemoney to encourage ideas 
I love the idea. I was going to start a website very similar too awhile ago. Like you, I wouldn't have had 200k to give away! Thanks for voting for my idea haha. Do you know what the votes do? They don't decided the winner so are they just artificial?
Next time you walk or drive our roads have a look at the 'linear dumps' the ditches and hedges are becoming. I propose two self financing ways of tackling this.
Frist, all drinks containers (plastic bottles, aluminium cans, glass bottles) have a 1 levy imosed at the point of purchase. If the buyer brings the container back to a recycling centre he/she gets the money back. If the buyer throws the container away there are many people who would be glad to pick it up and return it. In my part of the country (south east) I could easily make a 100 on a half hour walk on some roads. All levys not reclaimed go into government coffers to boost tax revenue. This scheme also ensures that the 'pig people' who litter pay for the clean up, not the rest of us. I have seen this scheme in operation in Denmark and it works, not a sinlge container on any road.
Second, other forms of domestic rubbish also finds its way onto the roads, dumped by those who will not pay bin charges. I say do away with bin charges and impose a 5% levy (seperarte from the drinks container levy) at the point of pruchase for all products and groceries not in recyclable packaging to cover domestic waste collection. Now the 'pig people' cannot escape paying for refuse collection and perhaps they will use their bins rather than the road.
I hve various ideas on how of these schemes could be implemented which involve I.T. systems, the manufacture of 'smart recycling' bins at recycling centres and more. These will give employment to Irish people in I.T. and manufacturing.
great idea but i think a lot of people would just see 'more taxes' and get angry… however much like coin operated shopping trolleys, this system would work… it's not too often you'll see shopping trolleys in lakes or scattered around car parks these days 😉
i have to agree with you .. the competition started with great enthusiam to help the irish people and the irish economy get back on its feet.. some good ideas and some points of view..!! we had our own idea removed through spam etc and re-entered with idea 3429.. basically we do have the job creation business to employ 1 million irish.. we are so far out in the wings that we have no chance of being seen and as you pointed out the most supported will not create any jobs and not solve economic problems.great drug awareness blog and forum and helping many sufferers. similar to the venus project idea.. great mass organisational support from the members of the movement .. no interest in the competition just a membership and awareness drive that probably netted 10,000 new members from ireland.. so the competition might be remembered for doing just that and being very effective at it.. just a thought have a look at my ideas if you get a chance..?? thanks pete fox
Have you seen the list of 20 proposals selected for the semis !!!! There is nothing there (except the cloud computing idea). It is either populist (an IFSC type of structure but for health…ie instead of adressinfg the real problem of the cost of health which is because of the pharmaceutical lobbying and uncompetent civil servants) or completely 'sci fi' (we do not have any top universities at world level but we want to export our students !!!!!!)…complete rubbish. A guy who had the idea of considering the game designers as artist (tax free) was brilliant in order to attract them here from all over the world but…he has not been selected….I d say that the whole thing reflects perfectly the cul de sac the country is at the moment..a complete lack of vision from everybody. I think that the guy who as a joke had the idea of negociating 300000 one way tickets with Michael O'Leary is not a joke anymore !