The mission of The Economic Innovation Recovery Enterprise (EIRE) is to extend the life of the platform Your Country Your Call competition has created, broaden the scope of it and maintain the momentum of this call to action until economic wealth and prosperity are attained and well and truly established in Ireland by creating an entity or working group that will act as a follow-up to the competition. The purpose of The Economic Innovation Recovery Enterprise is to keep the momentum of YCYC dynamic and progressing towards the core aims of the competition, which are to stimulate national interest and generate ideas on an ongoing basis that will create economic recovery and prosperity for Ireland. This ongoing working group in partnership with the government and all of the relevant agencies, such as the Enterprise Boards, Innovation Task Force the EU, will identify all of the proposals that offer workable solutions in each category and offer mentoring and the opportunity to further More...

This proposal is from my family. Having carried out a thorough SWOT Analysis on Ireland Inc., we believe that there is a massive employment opportunity around what we feel is our single biggest natural resource (an island nation surrounded by Sea with Magnificent Lakes and Rivers) which can deliver thousands of jobs in throughout the island of Ireland. The employment and economic benefits would be delivered in every community throughout the country, and would be transformational in terms of unlocking the true potential of the nation. There would have to be total buy-in and commitment by Government, Enterprise Agencies, Tourism Bodies (Nationally and locally) that the single biggest opportunity for employment growth is using our natural resources (Our Seas, Our Lakes and Our Rivers) , and joined-up thinking to bring about this transformational and breakthrough idea in terms of job-creation. It would require the creation of a single Government Authority where ALL aspects of our Sea More...

This proposal suggests that Ireland capitalize on a national spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship and create an Independent Contract Research Services Organization that will offer both R&D services to industry, for Ireland and the EU and provide improved success for commercialization of innovation. Though it is believed that Ireland has the majority of skills in place to capitalize on bringing technology from inception to market delivery, we lack skills in certain areas that are critical. One of the key opportunities for improvement of technology commercialization is specifically in the area of “Commercialization” and also in “Marketing”. These areas have been acknowledged as needing improvement by several thought leaders in business, government and academia. (Innovation Taskforce Report, 3/2010). There is a great opportunity and desire to create an “Innovation hub” in Ireland, and for this hub to become a European Center of Innovation. Large organizations are alrea More...

The national psyche has for the last two years, been steadily focused on the economic demise of the Celtic Tiger. No-one can escape the numbing statistics and evidence, cited daily by political and economic commentators alike, through the media. The country has been split between those who have retained their jobs and livelihoods and those who have become the victims of our economic downturn. The taxpayer is the ultimate victim, but there are also those who find themselves in very real, desperate ‘hand to mouth’ economic circumstances, where survival has become the mainstay. Our thinktank existed before this competition. As friends, we meet every month. Each of our meetings invariably lead to musings of the country’s status quo, how we and others are existing and changing through this recession and how, if any, Ireland can be resuscitated. So we decided to showcase some of our ideas in this competition. They have been inspired to counter the palpable sense of loss of confidence More...

Despite the global downturn, Ireland is still able to attract considerable foreign direct investment to its shores. According to the IDA, there are nearly one thousand Multinational Companies operating in Ireland at present. My proposal investigates the possibility of creating linkages or ‘learning partnerships’ between these companies and local SME’s in order to promote sustainability and maximise employment potential.

Existing employers are presently trying desperately to reduce their headcount, there is a an embargo on the Public Service taking on staff and entrepreneurs find it impossible to start companies due to the TOTAL lack of seed capital. As a result of this situation it is simply not possible to kick start the economy by increasing employment. If not in these areas, where are the jobs to come from ? The 440,000 unemployed in this Country includes some of the most highly educated, determined and ambitious anywhere in the world. We want to work and more importantly we want to create employment. We have the skills, the products, services required to compete internationally in a knowledge economy. What we do not have is the support of ANY private or state sponsored agency who will provide the support required. Specifically, seed capital (NOT matching funds), unpaid mentoring, office facilities and contracts from public bodies. My proposal seeks to capitalise on utilising existing free resour More...

The national psyche has for the last two years, been steadily focused on the economic demise of the Celtic Tiger. No-one can escape the numbing statistics and evidence, cited daily by political and economic commentators alike, through the media. The country has been split between those who have retained their jobs and livelihoods and those who have become the victims of our economic downturn. The taxpayer is the ultimate victim, but there are also those who find themselves in very real, desperate ‘hand to mouth’ economic circumstances, where survival has become the mainstay. Our thinktank existed before this competition. As friends, we meet every month. Each of our meetings invariably lead to musings of the country’s status quo, how we and others are existing and changing through this recession and how, if any, Ireland can be resuscitated. So we decided to showcase some of our ideas in this competition. They have been inspired to counter the palpable sense of loss of confiden More...

PERPETUAL ENTERPRISE FUND PROVIDED BY BAILED OUT IRISH BANKS A perpetual enterprise fund financed by Irish Banks who have been bailed out by the Irish tax-payer, to be administered through either Enterprise Ireland or the IDA, which would offer start-up loans to new businesses on an “interest-free basis” to be repaid to the Perpetual Fund (and not the banks) at a time frame agreed by the participants and the administrators (either Enterprise Ireland or the IDA). The fund is perpetual because, as the money loaned is repaid back into the fund over time by each new business, it will create new jobs in start-up businesses into the future. I suggest the fund donated by the banks should be no less than €250 million. Loans given would be small to medium, for example between €5,000 to €10,000 (so there is minimal risk to the fund) and only given to fund-seekers with business ideas after administrators of the scheme had assessed viability and potential for success through a business More...

This is all about enterprise!! No time to elaborate just read!

Two-pronged approach: 1. Job seekers up-skill, entrepreneurs start-up 2. Creating a new generation of entrepreneurs through collaboration Further details in pdf