Level Up

This is a set of policy ideas designed to increase Ireland's global soft power + solve some chronic domestic challenges through public-private partnerships, capacity building for the digital+physical future and investment of windfall revenues. Position Ireland as the leading example in the EU and globally of a nation well adjusted to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century and export the example + work on increased GNI rather than GDP to mitigate the impact of negative global trends. Increasing the GNI and facilitating GNI growth can mitigate some global headwinds faced by a small open economy, increase real income per capita, facilitate higher standard of living for everyone etc.

This is not a throw the baby out with the bathwater situation, there are a lot of things going

extremely well in Ireland and in the public service, this is just to knock some of the chronic issues on the head (which I have heard about since I was 12) then push forward using the human, financial and intangible assets in the country. There is a lot of talk about the 'Irish Miracle' and all of that, I think there is a real possibility of the Irish miracle just beginning and potential to grow with the times rather than plateauing and sinking into a conservative or managerial state of being. If you think of all the growth through the last 40 odd years, now is not the time to harvest but rather keep planting.

Preconditions to any success would be some sort of political mandate where there is minimal compromise between parties in a coalition, cross party oversight, buy in from relevant stakeholders such as civil service/hse/local councils+communities etc, a review of what projects are already being done to avoid duplication, carrots and sticks for any private sector interactions and a 'start small+scale' approach . Also need to identify and kill whatever mechanism is resulting in examples like the €300k bike sheds, €1m security huts and a case study on what went wrong with the childrens hospital.

The numbers and costs are all nonsense really, I have no idea what any of this would actually cost to be honest, perhaps a dear reader could shed some light or help with a more concrete analysis. It is not 100% detailed and it would take massive coordination across the whole public sector and a fairly significant chunk of the private sector. And of course the final disclaimer - having never worked in the public sector, what do I know about what goes on in there or how it works, this is all just potential ideas that could be use. Any criticism or opinions are welcome and if you have a better idea please do share it.

Opinion on Whats going well: Revenue department, increasing gdp, fdi, export market growth, macroeconomic signals, increasing global awareness of Ireland via movies/music etc. Increasing standard of living

Opinion on things that are going Not so well: Health, housing, cost of living, birth rates, integration of some new arrivals (according to some), emigration+brain drain, political quagmire+stagnation+pettiness / bureaucratic managerial bloat leading to public project overspends+delays, general growing pains.

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Policy 1: UniData/DatÁmhain - Unified Public Sector Data Infrastructure

Objective: Create single, standardized data ecosystem across all government departments

Mechanism: Master citizen/business records, standardized APIs, real-time data

Investment: €400-600M over 4 years

Implementation: PPS number as universal identifier, phased departmental integration, privacy + anonymization as the core feature to allay any 'big brother' fears or any potential misuse by future government.

Outcome: Eliminates data silos, enables real-time policy decisions, foundation for digital services

Logic/Comment: We are just going to keep coming up with more and more data points in the coming years. Need structured databases (with capacity) for the individual and countries activities, reduce bureaucratic friction between departments, reduce friction between any healthcare-social care-etc, basically just have a qr code for any interaction with the public service and everything is linked up and automated so dont worry about filing tax returns or address changes yadayada Facilitate publicly available, sexy dashboards with progress and information about govt projects underway +progress, etc

Policy 2: Global Irish Investment Network

Objective: Create diaspora-driven economic expansion

Mechanism: Irish government takes 10-20% stakes in diaspora ventures globally via Enterprise Ireland

Investment: €400-600M over 4 years

Timeline: Scale from 100 to 1,000+ portfolio companies

Outcome: Self-sustaining investment returns, Irish innovation hubs in 10+ global cities

Logic/Comment: There is a massive oppurtunity to support and utilise all of the people who have left the country and benefit from their local insights/knowledge in potential export markets. If there was a mechanism set up where they could apply with a detailed outline+plan for a grant+mentorship for starting some service/company there could be a swath of sme as well as the possibility of a unicorn out there among the million odd irish emigrants. extend this to the typical 'diaspora' classification (2nd generation) then there is a massive pool of potential gni inflows as well as future oppurtunities. plenty of hurdles but easily overcome i think. would need agreement from local regulators etc. combine with policy 1 where relevant.

Policy 3: National Development Service + Housing Solution

Objective: Solve housing crisis via an opt-out youth service, similar to military service in other countries but

directed towards public works projects, while building national infrastructure capacity. Strong support

from the defense forces and local councils in training and allocating of people

Mechanism: 12-18 month service building infrastructure, participating in public projects, participants earn heavily discounted housing, pathways into other fields/apprenticeships etc . Fully paid opportunity to work

for your own house that you will rent to own going forward at a cheap rate and explore your country via the various military trainings, have a bit of craic in there as well.

Timeline: Scale from 5,000 to 25-30,000+ participants annually (leaving cert graduates)

Outcome: 50,000+ young people with homes and skills, major infrastructure development

Logic/Comment: Provide young people finishing the leaving cert with a structure outside of the typical apprenticeship/university pathways which combines elements of both within a disciplined framework as well as massive oppurtunities to get on the housing ladder, see the entire country, learn skills and earn a fairly decent wage along the way. Can put all expenditure under national defense budget as it is run through the defense forces and therefore meet the 3% of gdp military spending requirements coming down the line from the eu. Massive public workforce to build the housing supply required for the country. Learn practical skills, exposure to different potential careers etc. Combination of all demographics+regions of the island. Can still go to uni/do apprenticeship afterwards but now you will rent-2-own a piece of property somewhere etc. and of course plenty of admin dogwork to do for people who can't/won't participate in the physical side of things. Naturally it is opt out, not mandatory but I think the prospect of getting an accommodation for the future and pay for a year to do a bit of mullocking and shooting guns etc will get plenty of people in. I think this is an easy arbitrage considering all the big defence talk from the eu, easy to invest in this rather than fighter jets or whatever else. Could possibly add more people from the dole (work for benefits) or non-violent criminals in exchange for certifications/reduce sentencing (cost a lot to the taxpayer, take up a lot of space and contribute very little) Policy 4: Gaeilge

Objective: Create the first bilingual generation since independence through top to bottom Irish

language education

Mechanism: Phased conversion of all primary schools into Gaelscoile starting with Junior Infants and progressing year by year with the pilot class, opt-out fully subsidized Gaeltacht programmes for all secondary students in the summers of 2nd and 5th year

Investment: €300-400M annually at full scale

Implementation:

Phase 1 (Years 1-2): 50 pilot primary schools, grade-by-grade progression

Phase 2 (Years 3-8): National rollout to all 3,200+ primary schools

Teacher Training: 1,000 teachers annually through 6-month intensive programmes

Secondary Gaeltacht: 3-week programmes for all 2nd and 5th year students

Infrastructure: Expansion of Gaeltacht accommodation and digital learning platforms

Timeline:

Years 1-2: Pilot programmes and teacher training infrastructure

Years 3-8: Full primary school integration

Years 4-6: Secondary Gaeltacht programme launch

Years 8-10: First fully bilingual cohort enters secondary education

Outcome: Generational Irish language capability, strengthened cultural identity,revitalized Gaeltacht communities, enhanced international distinctiveness

Logic/Comment: Every european country speaks their own mother tongue as far as I am aware. We put next to zero thought or consideration into how we think about or approach Gaeilge, the language of the land itself. not to be a big fenian patriot or anything but it is part of the final remnants of the humiliation imposed by the empire on the island that needs to be shaken off. of course this is not some sort of call for patriotic fervour, english is extremely practical but we can do both, every other country in the world does it basically, local+english. Knowing 2 languages good for preventing cognitive decline as well. Embarrasing to be writing this in english of course, but I am admittedly not good at Gaeilge yet. Also the gaeltacht is great craic, especially with these scorching summers coming down the road and growing it is to the benefit of everyone.

Policy 5: Digital Ireland

Objective: Become one of the EU's first fully digital government, export platform globally, align+update all the systems across the board and build capacity for future updates.

Mechanism: Automated citizen services, blockchain identity, mobile-first design

Investment: €3-5B over 6 years. export the platform+expertise to other countries

Implementation: Built on UniData foundation, leverage multinational tech partnerships (policy 6), export licensing model

Outcome: 8-12% (possibly? export the platform and expertise) GNI uplift, major soft power asset if implemented correctly and successfully, €200-400M annual export revenue

Logic/Comment: same as above, just make it as efficient and as fast as possible and make everyones lives easier. Estonia managed something along similar lines and so did ukraine in the middle of a war

Policy 6: Corporate-Public Sector Skills Exchange

Objective: Bring private sector expertise to public sector challenges

Mechanism: Tax rebates for multinational employees solving defined public sector projects, use

digital skills matching platform, tax rebate for companies based on cumulative hours contributed by their employees

Investment: ??? Maybe it cancels out if efficiencies are achieved

Implementation: Independent Public Innovation Board, digital platform powered by UniData insights

Outcome: Enhanced public sector capability, career pathway creation between sectors, corporate tax optimization

Logic/Comment: I wrote about this one before, people+time > money for some challenges. A lot of good brains are being hired by the big companies. Offer tax incentives and put them to work on solving technical/logistical challenges that are underserved in public sector. Obviously need to monitor and coordinate + specify exact tasks, make sure people aren't just clocking off for 4 hours etc.

Policy 7: Healthcare Capacity + Mitigation

Objective: Eliminate waiting lists and build permanent healthcare capacity, enabled by unified patient

data, mitigate most health outcomes as early as possible

Mechanism: Strategic private partnerships, EU medical tourism, accelerated infrastructure development,

unified health records, mandatory 1 hour day exercise in schools for all students from junior infants-6th year, healthy school lunches for every school

Investment: €16-20B over 10 years (€1.6-2 B annually)

Timeline: Eliminate waiting lists within 3 years, 60% capacity increase by Year 8, improved health outcomes for youth

Outcome: World-class healthcare system, sustainable public-private model, preventive measures via healthy schools

Logic/Comment: Ireland max population historically was 8 million, current is 5, need a 60% increase in capacity to serve the country at max capacity. Currently strained, so clear the strain first. Big capital expenditure required. Feed people healthy food from the start, exercise them from the start to build good habits and hopefully reduce reliance going forward. This is the biggest thing on the list, feel like it needs doing though

Policy 8: Future of work

Objective: Ensure no worker is left behind by automation, create meaningful roles in national strategy or

pass legislation which gives meaningful stock share in fields being automated to employees displaced

Mechanism: Displaced workers receive retraining stipends plus guaranteed roles in infrastructure

projects, community services, or environmental programs

Investment: €200M annually (€1.6B over 8 years)

Implementation: €600/week stipend during 6-month retraining period, rural hub management, or environmental restoration, Skills assessment and career pathway planning

Outcome: reduce unemployment from automation, enhance community services, social cohesion

maintained

Logic/Comment: Wrote about this one before, automation is coming there is no point burying head in sand, get out in front of it early and ensure a benefit accrues from it.

Policy 9: Rural Initiative

Objective: Reverse rural decline by creating remote | hybrid work ecosystem

Mechanism: High-speed fiber to every village, co-working hubs, tax incentives for rural relocation

Investment: €800M over 4 years (€200M annually)

Implementation: Fiber optic to smaller villages, Co-working spaces in some villages with shared facilities, childcare, meeting rooms, income tax reduction for remote workers relocating to designated rural areas, partner with corporations to facilitate joint investment into the hubs, maybe small local offices for participating employees etc instead of one centralised hq. Extend to public sector as well.

Outcome: Rural population stabilization, reduce Dublin housing pressure, distribute economic development, stimulate some growth outside of urban hubs

Logic/Comment: if people moved to Dublin or somewhere else for work, out of their local area and they want to go back to the countryside to start a family or whatever, facilitate it and incentivise it, bring a bit of life back into smaller more remote places, change the age dynamics etc

Policy 10: Global Policy Intelligence Network

Objective: Adopt and adapt international best practices across all policy areas

Mechanism: Transform embassies into policy R&D outposts, quarterly insights to government

Investment: €50M annually (€400M over 8 years) - minimal cost, use existing diplomatic infrastructure

Implementation: Each embassy assigned 2-3 policy focus/market research areas, Best Practice Summits, digital knowledge sharing platform for policy impact measurement

Target Learning Example: Singapore (housing/healthcare digitization), Denmark (digital social services),

South Korea/Estonia (digital government), Switzerland (digital fiscal management), Canada (digital

immigration) etc

Outcome: Evidence-based policy development, faster implementation of proven solutions, continuous

optimization of all initiatives

Logic/Comment: wrote about this before. Japan found itself at the wrong end of technological advancement at the start of the 1800s when lads rolled up with cannons and steam ships. Meiji restoration occurred and they sent people to all the top performing countries (best army, best navy etc) and they used the concepts and principles to improve their own country. Similar idea here, find the best at any given thing (health, housing, transport, childcare) and add a function to the embassy to do observation and collect insights/implications/methods etc. Extension could be to get the available data from nielsen/ipsos/kantar/gfk etc on the countries and do a bit of market oppurtunity analysis as well to see what could be a good export fit. Policy 11: Saints & Scholars Global Partnership

Objective: Transform new arrivals seeking a better life into Ireland's global ambassadors

Mechanism: Structured training and financial incentive, then support their return home as community champions

Investment: €200-300M over 4 years

Timeline: Scale from 500 to 5,000+ participants annually

Outcome: 20,000+ trained ambassadors globally, enhanced soft power

Logic/Comment: Cannot keep housing people in IPAS centres - it is borderline inhumane and causes massive disruption and instability in the country, do not have the capacity as a country to take in so many people yet, plenty of talented among them who want a better life, any policy of refusing people or sending them elsewhere would cost about 20 grand in fines from the eu anyway so why not invest these people and the equivalent of the fine back into their own communities with mentorship+support (and a stake) to make their communities more hospitable and conducive to success, thus reducing the compulsion to move. not intended for people escaping persecution obviously and means tested etc etc all the usual caveats. By taking a minor stake in whatever the industry / company / service they go on to provide increase GNI inflows + benefits accruing from local goodwill if things go well. Increase ties with developing nations, think belt and road but smaller scale and a bit more humane. Combine with policy 2.

Policy 12: Irish Strategic & Generational Wealth Fund

Objective: Create sovereign wealth fund with universal birth investment program, building generational

wealth while developing trading capacity

Mechanism: trading department managing sovereign capital, €1,000 government investment per birth with flexible withdrawal options

Investment: €500M float + €70M annually (birth investments) + retroactive opt-in

contributions

Implementation: Growth fund : 45-60 specialist traders across specific markets: commodities (policy 14), equities/growth/ipo, index funds (stability), bonds (soft power), work them hard + pay them well, active across all the global markets, use policy 10 data where possible

Age 18+: Partial withdrawals allowed for education, first home, business startup

Compound bonuses: 0.5% additional return if funds remain until 25, 1% bonus until 30

Government matching: X% of balance used for first home deposit

Emergency provisions: Medical/hardship withdrawals

Retroactive Program: Citizens can retroactively opt-in with €X personal contribution for x-year lock-in

period, tack on to pension for higher risk/return etc

Risk Profiling: Parents choose allocation, with age-based auto-rebalancing toward conservative investments

Timeline: Launch Year 1 with retroactive program, full birth investment program by Year 2, full coverage by Year 8

Outcome: Universal wealth-building, €4,000-8,000 average payout at 18, creates nation of investors, generates €2-4B immediate trading capital, builds sovereign wealth permanently

Logic/Comment: Relatively low risk and high return strategy, give people something in their name when they get out of leaving cert/when they need to buy a house/ start a business etc. Could possibly cause inflation in the first withdrawals. Could possibly get stakes in big companies/voting power etc increased soft power.

Policy 13: Community Resilience & Food Security

Objective: Reduce grid risk and increase local food security through opt in + support gamified participation

Mechanism: means tested government-subsidized solar panels and battery storage for all housing, transformation of unused green spaces in housing estates for example into community gardens and orchards, gamified competition through digital leaderboards

Investment: €300-400M over 4 years

Implementation: X% reduction in USC or something for households+communities demonstrating participation, additional property tax rebates for estates achieving milestones, prizes for top-performing/top improving etc estates, Revenue sharing from excess energy sold back to grid, Digital platform+sexy dashboards tracking participation+progress, scheduling maintenance etc

Can use policy 3 to manage day-to-day operations

Timeline: Scale from 20 pilot housing estates in Year 1 to 500+ housing estates nationally by Year 4

Outcome: Reduction in household energy costs, High % of fresh produce grown locally, enhanced

community social capital, reduced pressure on national grid, reduce grocery bills for struggling families

Logic/Comment: What is the point of all the unused lawns and green spaces, just constantly mowing them over and over again. can leave plenty of space for soccer etc but it is good craic to grow spuds and then eat them, you save money, learn and making leaderboards and leagues etc encourages a bit of fun competition.

Policy 14: Strategic Reserves

Objective: Ensure 90-day food and fuel security for every citizen during global emergencies and

generate savings through futures trading

Mechanism: see Policy 12 - manage oil futures contracts 90 days ahead with daily market

release, rotating physical reserves.

Investment: €200-300M over 4 years

Implementation:

Oil Reserve Strategy: Ireland purchases oil futures contracts 90 days ahead at locked-in prices through

policy 12 trading department, release oil daily at predetermined prices potentially creating consumer

savings during price spikes, price stability year round, less exposure to global shocks, rolling 90-day forward coverage through futures purchasing, reinvest profits into renewables.

Food Reserve Strategy: 90-day rotating physical stock of non-perishables

Distribution Framework: Leverage existing postal service and local council networks for deployment

Timeline: Establish policy 12 Trading Desk in Year 1, scale to full 90-day coverage across essential commodities by Year 3 - think copper. aluminium for construction.

Outcome: Professional trading potentially generates returns while maintaining strategic security, potential reduction in consumer fuel costs during price spikes, market stability rather than just emergency stockpiles

Logic/Comment: Prepare for the worst, who knows what could happen, in case the worst does happen society does not fall apart immediately.

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Overall

Total Investment: probably €A LOT but spread over 8-10 years maybe an extra 5% on the budget initially and then

Primary Funding: Apple tax windfall, EU structural + Defence funds, corporate tax revenues, digital platform export revenue, rural development EU funds, FDI

Expected ROI: Self-sustaining by Year 6 through diaspora investment returns + digital export revenue +

reduced urban infrastructure pressure

Soft Power Impact: Ireland rises in global rankings: digital + rural +public/private models

Domestic Impact: Housing crisis solved for next few generations, healthcare transformed, skills capacity

increased, government efficiency gains, rural-urban balance, reduced automation risk, Gaeilge revival, energy independence, food security, wealth fund for next generation, facilitate earlier+secure family development. Hopefully more trust in government+institutions if pulled off.

Omissions: There should probably be something done about transport (high speed rail + Dublin metro at low cost preferably), childcare, disability care and energy (nuclear maybe), but I have no idea about them to be honest. Should probably means test a lot of it as well. All of these ideas should have fairly strict cutoffs, pilot tests and incentive+accountability measures so that if something is not working its killed and if people cannot implement something or it is failed or delayed beyond a certain threshold etc they are held accountable to the public whose money they have just wasted and if they get it done they are well rewarded.

A lot of this is probably being done already, I couldn't find much but I am sure there are similar programs underway. So just cross out the duplications.

Philosophy+Personal Opinions (subject to change)

I think the government should basically guarantee the bottom section of Maslows hierarchy of needs, which we nearly do. Why? As far as we know, people do not choose to be born at all and they do not choose where to be born so it is only really fair that every basic need is taken care of so as to mitigate unnecessary and involuntary suffering that may occur just by being put into a bad situation. I think government should facilitate or create fertile conditions for the second layer to provide the nation and its citizens with the best possible chance of getting to the top of the pyramid. After that it is up to individuals and communities and government should step off. The debate then is what is included in that second rung in the 21st century. I would say social mobility, education, healthcare, stable communities, economic security+opportunities domestically and abroad, oppurtunity to start a family securely and facilitation of global mobility. There is probably a lot more of course. We are almost there, but we can go further

I think societies follow the same trend as the individual on the maslow hierarchy so it would be good to get all the way to the top and see what the next pyramid is.

I have the growing impression that countries with a certain ratio of GNI:GDP domestically and soft power (based on rankings) internationally accrue a lot of intangible gains + privileges + oppurtunities for their citizens.

In the end ultimately I think there is an abundance of oppurtunity available in the coming decades if we put our heads above the parapet, stay on top of the issues+advances, stay calm, take a few risks and quickly nail the issues that we seem to be constantly circling the drain on. The solutions exist, the people exist, bit of focus and we have it nailed.

Thanks for reading

Let me know what can be improved or if I've lost the plot.