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Endorsements

Policy platform testimonials

Steven Lee

Economist and Senior Policy Analyst at the United Nations International Development Organization.

“A well-rounded set of tangible policies that cover a range of pertinent challenges, which would deliver structurally focused social, economic, and political progress, by meaningfully addressing many of the long-standing policy problems that Ireland has struggled to overcome.”

Sebastian Keavney

Associate Professor of Global Health Security at Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies; ex-Assistant Professor of Public Health at TCD Centre for Global Health.

“A candidate who understands the value of a modern approach to humanitarianism and foreign aid, and who has a dedicated policy section which details proposals that are cognisant of the on the ground realities that would make a serious difference.”

Sheridan Jones

Global Technology Expert including as Director of Strategic Alliances for Research at Microsoft; ex-Director of Cloud Services at Microsoft; ex-Director of Business and Strategy at Microsoft.

“As a global technology veteran with the world’s largest operator of data centres, who is pioneering the deployment of net-zero solutions, I am pleased to read a balanced policy platform that understands the broader economic value of the data centre industry, and presents a practical approach that could meaningfully address the challenges facing our sector.”

Tom Pollock

Commercial Development Manager at TCD Learnovate Centre

“A collection of exciting policy measures that would turbocharge Ireland’s export growth, and which are clearly borne of a professional who understands the global innovation environment, as well as the obstacles that both startup and scaleup companies face in their efforts to compete in the global market.”

Eoghan Byrne

Director at Santiago Investment Advisors; ex-Director at Davy Group.

“As an experienced professional of the Irish investment industry, it is great to see a dynamic candidate with an ambitious policy platform, whose big picture thinking is reflective of my own sector’s vision for innovation and originality.”

Peter Brennan

Author of Ireland’s Public Procurement Guidelines; ex-Director of IBEC Europe, Chairman of the Institute of European Affairs Climate Change Project.

“As a professional who has spent his life advocating for increased standards of public procurement, I was delighted to nominate Marcus’ candidacy and support his policy proposals for the public sector, which are substantive and well-reasoned.”

Policies and Priorities

Proposed solutions for different issues and concerns

Housing

Support the construction of housing via targeted subsidies for developers who build according to carefully prescribed criteria: energy efficiency, durability, ease of maintenance, and sustainability.

Overhaul the Private Rental Tenancies Board and vastly increase its resources, particularly in the area of dispute resolution.

Introduce a generous and flexible savings instrument that is tax-deductible and can be used to purchase or renovate a home.

Implement legislation that requires property developers to take out regulated insurances that provide long-term protection to buyers against defects and guarantee payout for unforeseen issues.

Cost of Living

Introduce additional tax bands to reduce the tax burden and address the inequality experienced by the ‘squeezed middle’.

Increase the threshold and expand the range of pension, savings, and social security instruments that are tax deductible

Identify mechanisms that can increase disposable income, such as the introduction of subsidies for costs like childcare, health, schooling, et cetera.

Incentivize the use of public transit by making the ticket costs tax deductible.

Establish a taskforce to build upon previous efforts to robustly tackle underlying factors that are contributing to the high cost of insurances in Ireland.

Health

Establish a public health programme to expand the capacities and accessibility of the mental health service, and increase both individual resilience and positive social engagement within active communities.

Introduce a national general health exam and expand the range of voluntary vaccines that may be freely accessed.

Accelerate the adoption of the integrated immunization register for people who wish to track their inoculations and immunity levels.

Substantively increase the range of medicines that pharmacists can prescribe without a prescription from a general practitioner.

Ban disposable vape products and deploy a targeted campaign to tackle underage non-combustible smoking.

Implement a sexual health strategy that includes home testing to improve the prevention, detection, and treatment of infections.

Establish a Citizen’s Assembly to consider questions and develop options regarding dying with dignity issues.

Homelessness and Addiction

Increase care centre capacity by deploying rapid accommodation units with integrated community facilities and social support services.

Provide more funding for food banks and related initiatives, and expand the range of community support services that are collocated.

Meaningfully implement harm reduction initiatives that have been repeatedly recommended by international organisations, including decriminalisation, drug consumption rooms, and increased detox capacity.

Support the ongoing work of senator Lynn Ruane regarding her public policy work in the areas of homelessness, addiction, and harm reduction.

Disabled and Elderly

Establish an agency for the coordination, management, and quality assurance oversight of in-community care resources.

Implement measures to eliminate middle-management wastage in private home care companies so that carers earn more of the money paid by the State.

Significantly increase the recruitment of professional carers and expand the number of home care hours.

Widen the home carer tax relief to include non-nursing needs and costs, such as employing a carer who is not a registered nurse, as well as other types of people who are needed to maintain the home care environment.

Increase the allowances and other financial supports for family carers, and develop initiatives to support the transition of carers after their duties have naturally ended.

Energy

Become a renewable energy exporter by building a large-scale wind industry that uses deep offshore floating turbines.

Create a national energy storage strategy and construct a network of grid storage facilities.

Build geothermal stations and district heating systems where economically viable.

Direct the Citizens’ Assembly to review Ireland’s position towards the latest advances in nuclear power, and evaluate the full lifecycle benefits and environmental costs of the technology.

Climate

Require that non-renewable activities are matched by investments into projects that have a minimum x2 off-set multiple.

Implement significant financial incentives for businesses operating in Ireland who switch from plastics to more costly alternatives.

Proactively lobby the EU Commission to establish tough financial penalties for businesses who utilize plastic in their products or as part of their packaging.

Develop a framework of incentives to meaningfully stimulate the creation of an extensive waste-recovery economy, with a focus on the retrieval of usable products and recyclable materials.

Agriculture

Create a programme for farmers to cover costs related to parental leave, sickness, injury, and bereavement.

Establish a dedicated initiative to fund the installation of renewable infrastructure on farms, which can reduce their costs and earn them additional income from the sale of microgenerated electricity.

Review obstacles to the adoption of High Nature Value farming practices and implement measures to increase the proportion of Irish land farmed according to the principles.

Transportation

Rapidly rollout electrified trolleybuses in commuter dense areas and quickly develop routes previously earmarked for costly light rail systems.

Significantly expand intercity bus services and extend the operating hours of all transport systems.

Develop a more comprehensive scheme to expand upon the local hackney pilot and increase the supply of affordable small public service vehicle operators in rural Ireland.

Increase the use of regional airports and invest in connective links to support logistics transfers and passenger commuting.

Build new deep-water ports to decentralize away from Dublin and promote regional growth.

Arts and Culture

Advocate for the democratic election of Night mayors in large cities and develop a diverse night economy.

Significantly increase the general level of funding and expand development programmes for arts productions and cultural events.

Implement a series of targeted subsidies to stimulate theatre productions and other live dramatic performances.

Establish a taskforce to evaluate the ticket sales industry and identify options for mitigating platforms and intermediary practices that make arts and cultural events artificially expensive and inaccessible.

Expand the artists exemption threshold and exempt art prize awards being counted towards social protection entitlements.

Business and Employment

Rescind the moratorium on data centres and permit their construction where applicants are making a reasonable effort to mitigate negative externalities.

Develop a range of targeted grants for startups who are involved in the virtual production segments of the film, television, and video game industries.

Abolish capital gains tax on first time investors into early-stage science ventures and redefine tax reliefs so that they are threshold based instead of determined by the year of investment.

Create export development initiatives to cultivate specific high value markets and strategically grow high-priority Irish product categories.

Establish foreign direct investment programmes to target the relocation of sunrise industry scale-ups from overseas commercial centres.

Rejuvenate the trade union movement by making it a statutory requirement for new employees to attend one free off-site labour rights awareness workshop.

Anglo-Irish Relations

Develop exchange initiatives that provide speaking time for delegations of the English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Ireland parliaments.

Establish Citizens’ Assemblies in both the North and the South to fully articulate the concerns and aspirations people have and would wish to see achieved by a unified Ireland.

Set-up a ‘United Ireland Taskforce’ to develop a plan for integrating each jurisdiction, which is based upon an evaluation of unification obstacles and the outputs from the Citizens’ Assemblies.

Humanitarianism and Foreign Aid

Redesign the mandates for Ireland’s publicly administered funds to allow a small proportion of investments to be made directly into ventures that comply with the sustainable development goals.

Develop a timetable for Ireland to finally meet the United Nations international aid target of 0.7% and create a meaningful strategy for the allocation of developmental funds to worthwhile programmes.

Integrate defence policy with Ireland’s foreign and international aid strategy to maximize the effectiveness of humanitarian interventions and long-term assistance and development missions.

Security and Defence

Give members of An Garda Siochana the latitude and support they need to effectively police antisocial behaviour in communities and enforce the law against criminal activities.

Increase judicial expertise by introducing additional specialisms, such as judges for domestic and sexual violence.

Implement a points system of immigration that applies an evaluation-decision process based upon character, merit, and other discretionary factors.

Advocate for the remit expansion and strengthening of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Develop a specialist reserve as a means to build up silos of expert knowledge and retain valuable service personnel who can operationally deploy with units of the Permanent Defence Forces.

Acquire strategic air lift capacity and develop an effective air intercept squadron.

Accountability and Responsibility

Develop a statutory framework that allows senior civil servants and public officials to be held accountable for their decisions.

Legislate for the statutory compliance of all public procurement processes with the Public Spending Code.

Make it the Law that all major infrastructural projects must implement the procurement and management methodologies of the International Organization for Standardization.

Track Record

Media coverage of advocacy work against public spending wastage

Ivan Yates interview on NBP

Fines for NBP missing targets

Failures of NBP

Failures of NBP

Delays to NBP

Delays to NBP

NBP dangers to vulnerable people

Wastage of NBP

Wastage of NBP

Significant questions raised of NBP

Irish times logo

Industry group present NBP alternative

Benefits of alternative NBP showcased

Irish times logo

NBP Inefficiency Highlighted

Irish telcos pitch €400m alternative

Integrated Media Solutions interview on NBP

RISPA statement to Communications Committee

Alternative to the NBP

Alternative to the NBP

RISPA delegation before Communications Committee

Ivan Yates interview on NBP

Fines for NBP missing targets

Failures of NBP

Failures of NBP

Delays to NBP

Delays to NBP

NBP dangers to vulnerable people

Wastage of NBP

Wastage of NBP

Significant questions raised of NBP

Irish times logo

Industry group present NBP alternative

Benefits of alternative NBP showcased

Irish times logo

NPB Inefficiency Highlighted

Irish telcos pitch €400m alternative

Integrated Media Solutions interview on NBP

RISPA statement to Communications Committee

Alternative to the NBP

Alternative to the NBP

RISPA delegation before Communications Committee