In the ten days since its launch, ‘Your Country, Your Call‘ has attracted over 1600 suggestions. Not all are winners.
Unorthodox proposals include privatising the army as an international mercenary force and “building a leprechaun theme park”.
Other suggestions include converting unoccupied homes into tourist accommodation, a fundraising All Ireland 25 Card Drive to increase pub business , and calls for jobseekers to work for dole. Bootcamps for criminals are also popular.
Imaginative schemes include a landbridge from Ireland to Britain, a Sligo-Dundalk tunnel, and a Wexford-Wales “Euro tunnel”.
One writer suggested cars powered by seawater. Another outlines plans for an electric-hover car, using “mini jets”. Then there’s the “massive Retirement City on the train line between Newbridge and Kildare”, attracting high-spending pensioners from Europe.
Another despairs the lack of world class tourist attractions, and suggests the world’s tallest building “in the geographic centre of Ireland”
However, the prize for most imaginative idea must go to “cow flatulence as sustainable energy”.
“A simple, safe and painless implant into the lower back of every cow channels the methane into storage balloons,” the contributor explained. “The farmer then extracts the gas during milking.”
