Dear Sara,
Thank you for your question. I was initially prompted to run as a candidate principally to highlight family law and issues related to the judiciary. While www.gerardlinehan.ie details these issues, my election manifesto can be viewed separately on the same web site. This manifesto includes job creation, but is not limited to other issues listed therein.
If elected I would try to organise practical schemes for individuals and groups whereby unemployed people of all ages could pool their resources and expertise to produce substitutes, for imported products and services for the home and particularly the export market.
In many instances these individuals or groups of varying skills and expertise would be aware of specific niche products or services that they could produce or provide, if given an opportunity in a suitable cooperative environment. In other instances the State agencies would be aware of the products and services that are in demand and advise accordingly. Not everyone will necessarily have the capacity to start a business under any circumstances, but would be willing to apply themselves to the work and or the learning of new skills as would be required in any job.
I have considered the current employment situation as someone who has been self employed for fourteen years. Throughout those years, I identified niches within the industry in which I had been previously employed and went to be trained and certified by authorised bodies, manufacturers and their agents in the US, England, Scotland, Wales and Israel. Together this ongoing training and my apprenticeship have enabled me to survive.
In the ideal world one would have customers, all the necessary skills, office equipment, tools, machinery, a place in which to put them all, and a bank overdraft. Such requirements would be beyond the reach of many if not all, looking for or trying to create employment for themselves at the best of times, but particularly at present. But there are many empty facilities throughout the country which are owned by the state, with equipment and materials repossessed by sheriffs lying idle (example only), all of which could be used by individuals or groups if the bureaucracy, common to state agencies was removed.
While some of these business schemes might fail initially, others would grow and prosper, thus creating a demand for more varying skilled workers, trainees, apprentices and sub contractors while reinvigorating the economy and people’s living standards. The participants in such schemes might have to do make do with whatever state benefits they were in receipt of to begin with. But this would provide the incentive for the initiatives to succeed.
If the right people from the private and or private/public sector focused on initiating such schemes, having been discussed and planned through public meetings etc, I believe that they could be up and running in a matter of weeks. And that is were I if elected, would focus my efforts to ensure that all the individuals, groups, state agencies were working as one in finding customers, procuring materials, producing quality products and services and delivering them on time.
To my mind there has been no forward planning in terms of where the country was going for many years. There is little point in talking about it now because it is past tense. In the last couple of years however, since the bubble burst there has been no sense of urgency on the part of the politicians who are paid to run the country. Now it’s as if it was an emergency and there still debating about bond holders. I’m talking about creating something from nothing, because that’s what is needed given the states indebtedness. I have stated in the manifesto that I believe that Iceland had the right idea about their banks. Many would say such action is not an option for Ireland given its membership of the EU. In the meantime what ever money is held by the state could be used in the short term to continue the funding of a reformed public sector, the unemployed and the provision of raw materials, in which the working schemes of individuals and groups could produce their goods and services where possible for export, but for the substitution of imports at the very least.
It would be time enough to pay the bond holders, the IMF and the EU and who ever else what ever they are owed in five years time when the country is back on its feet.
I hope this answers your question Sara. It is not a blue print that would guarantee full employment, but one could expect positive results within a year given good leadership, example and commitment by politicians motivated by the needs of the people rather than their respective parties.
Yours sincerely,
Gerard Linehan
(...) If elected I would try to organise practical schemes for individuals and groups whereby unemployed people of all ages could pool their resources and expertise to produce substitutes, for imported products and services for the home and particularly the export market. (...)
