NB This is a very rough draft. I originally posted this on the alternative party forum, now defunct, and haven’t had time to update it. Hopefully seeing it on a public space again will prompt me to work on it.

I believe that when the concept of holistic accounting is considered, the cost of free transport would be considerably cheaper than any conventional figure. Holistic accounting takes in the social, health and environmental enhancements and savings involved in any costing. The health consequences of doing nothing will in themselves put a dent in any conventional budget:
“The report just released on Greenhouse Gas Abatement Strategy shows that there will be a 180 per cent rise in emissions from cars and trucks over the next 10 years if nothing is done. It shows this will cause huge damage to people’s health. Already EU limits for emissions from cars and trucks are massively exceeded in the Dublin region.” (Vincent Browne, The Irish Times, September 20th, 2000).

As for the financial benefits, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce estimates that the traffic chaos is costing Ireland €3 billion a year.

But what about private sector transport services? Public funding doesn’t imply taking away people’s livelihoods. They should be funded in the same way, subject to a high standard of service being implemented. According to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan, [edit: she no longer holds this ministry] along with Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, up to 80 private companies already participate in the Free Travel Scheme, so there is a precedent for subsidising private transport companies.

The principle is already there, in other words.

The question that is never asked about subsidising private transport will of course be immediately asked when in comes to the public sphere – where will the money come from?
“Last year (2004) 528 people died on the roads of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland; several thousand more were seriously injured. The death toll on Ireland’s roads over the last 30 years is about 20,000, although advances in vehicle and road engineering and changes in the behaviour of road-users mean that the number of people killed each year is now half what it was 30 years ago. Each of those deaths is a family tragedy and many need not have happened. Bad driving is often a cause of road deaths, but in many instances neither the vehicle nor the road have provided road-users with adequate protection. see European Road Assessment Program

The Alberta Medical Association estimated that in 1999 traffic crash costs in Alberta,
Canada total $3.8 billion (1998 Canadian dollars), based on a value of $2.9 million
per fatality, $100,000 per injury, and $8,000 for each property-damage-only
collision.53 This averages about $515 dollars per capita ($335 U.S.), $740 per motor
vehicle ($471), and 3.7¢ per motor vehicle-kilometre (4.0¢ U.S. per vehicle-mile).
NB this link is to a pdf file.

At 528 fatalities in Ireland, that would appear to be a cost of 1.125billion Euro. That’s not counting the cost of injury.

It will in part be a long term investment in savings in public health costs, fines for not meeting our Kyoto Protocol agreements, lives saved, and world wide publicity for Ireland. These are beyond my capacity to estimate, but might make a nice thesis for an student economist. Directly in the short to medium term it would come from a parity of investment principle, and possibly charges similar to those in Ken Livingstone’s scheme for London. And not least, by the savings to the economy through reduced traffic congestion, as highlighted by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce (see link above).

I believe a small towns in Holland and the US provide free transport, but Ireland would be the first country per se to do so. Let’s be the first to do worthwhile things, especially now that we have a smoking ban success, and stop looking to Britain and the US before we do anything.

The advantages immediately apparent are as follows:

* Immediate and significant transfer of wealth to the poor and less well-off.
* Increased access to social and economic activity for the same groups
* Greater parity of investment in public and private transport (important principle)
* Greater speed of bus journeys
* Tax payers would see value for money. The tax payer pays, the tax payer benefits.
* Greater sense of public ownership
* Zero robberies and reduced assaults on bus drivers and staff. Reduced workload for drivers and
inspectors making confrontation with the public unlikely.
* No more wasting of inspector and court time bringing prosecutions
* Coupled with the proper implementation of QBCs, greatly reduced traffic congestion. This has
obvious large savings for businesses etc
* Reduced inflation.
* Reduced stress for the traveling public, therefore greater productivity and health; more free
time for personal and family interests
* Reduced oil imports and dependency. Reduction in car imports.
* Reduced traffic accidents as outlined above
* Improvement in air quality, and consequent improvement in health
* Significant step towards implementation of Kyoto Principles – a national obligation
* Alleviation of rural and suburban isolation – less depression
* The benefit to students and their families would amount to the equivalent of a significant
increase in student grants
* The present cost of pensioner and social welfare free travel would be absorbed into overall cost,
with greater dignity for pensioners and social welfare recipients
* Cut in administration, accounting, printing and security costs
* Redeployment of inspectors to raise standards
* Liberation of management from profit-driven to service-driven mentality
* Tourist relief and delight – a tourist attraction in itself. World kudos for Ireland.

I also advocate the scrapping of the extension of Luas lines, to be replaced by Streetcars – beautiful a bus-tram hybrid manufactured by Wrights of Ballymena. See my Streetcars of Desire entry.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc6ZY91kUTk

The four major adopters of VistA – VA (VistA), DoD (CHCS), IHS (RPMS), and the Finnish Musti consortium – each took VistA in a different direction, creating related but distinct “dialects” of VistA. VA VistA and RPMS exchanged ideas and software repeatedly over the years, and RPMS periodically folded back into its code base new versions of the VA VistA packages. These two dialects are therefore the most closely related. The Musti software drifted further away from these two but retained compatibility with the infrastructure of RPMS and VA VistA (while adding additional GUI and web capabilities to improve function).

link to full Wikipedia article

The Musti Consortium “has also been active to transfer the M Technology and applications to new environments like Unix, PCs, PC networks as well as client/server environments.” This would appear to cut costs even further, and being a European implementation, might well be better suited to Ireland.

Given the experience with electronic voting machines, it would appear that the current government (March 2010) can be trusted to choose the worst possilbe option. To avoid disaster by default, a debate on the issue is of the utmost importance.

Electronic health records could cut costs by a third

RONAN McGREEVY

The Irish Times, Tue, Mar 09, 2010

Thousands of man hours could be saved if the State implemented an integrated electronic system of patient records

THE COST of administrating the health service could be cut by a third if integrated electronic patient records were introduced across the system, a medical conference has been told.

Currently there is no integrated system of patient records in the State, a situation which leads to thousands of man hours being spent recovering electronic and paper records.

Speaking at the spring conference of the Irish Society of Rheumatology last week, Dr John Carey said they could see three times as many patients if a proper electronic health information (EHI) system was in place.

Dr Carey cited international evidence which showed that one in five laboratory tests was repeated and one in seven hospitalisations was carried out unnecessarily because patient records were not found in time.

In Galway University Hospital, where he works, there are 20 different sets of health records in individual specialities.

Dr Carey said the integration of the health system into a “single seamless system” was achievable with modern technology and broadband and would pay for itself many times over after the initial investment, although he said he hadn’t costed the initial set-up.

He cited the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in the United States, which administers the health of four million US veterans, as an example of best practice in this regard.

It has a widely praised system called VistA which is accessible to health professionals with secure passwords.

“I’m in favour of a universal system that everybody from GPs to consultants can use and we can look at what we are all doing.

“It takes time. If it is done well, it has great advantages; if it is done badly, it creates more problems,” according to Dr Carey.

“You should be able to access it from anywhere and see that information is accurate.

“There are huge savings in terms of finances, efficiency, etc,” he said.

US President Barack Obama made an integrated system one of the pledges of his presidential campaign.

Consultant rheumatologist Dr Robert Coughlan told the spring conference that having an integrated system would be good for patients because doctors would have immediate access to the relevant details.

He revealed that an e-clinic to be set up in Roscommon Hospital, which is connected to Merlin Park University Hospital, would enable rheumatology doctors to collect about 90 per cent of the information they need without physically seeing the patient.

It will also save patients long bus and car journeys from all over the west of Ireland to visit the hospital.

“There is no reason why this kind of practice should not be rolled out in all specialities nationwide with the support of private initiatives and the HSE,” Dr Coughlan said.

© 2010 The Irish Times

(published in The Irish Times, Mon, Mar 08, 2010)

In this open letter, 28 leading economists, social scientists and economic analysts tell the Government that it’s policies for dealing with the economic crisis are wrong. And they chart a different course

THE GOVERNMENT’S economic strategy is failing. The Irish recession has been deeper and longer than almost any other in the industrialised world.

photo credit: infomatique: some rights reserved.

Consumer spending has collapsed while at the same time unemployment and emigration have soared. Crucially, investment has plummeted off the chart. Not only have Government policies failed to stem this haemorrhage, they have actively contributed to this collapse.

The Government has pursued deflationary policies, in particular public expenditure cuts. The most damaging are cuts in transfers to low-income groups which, along with general tax increases on low and average pay in 2009, have reduced spending power in the economy at a time when it was most needed.

Equally damaging have been the cuts in public investment at a time when private investment has plummeted. This has laid the foundations for a low-growth, high-debt future where unemployment will remain high and inequality endemic. All the wrong options have been pursued.

Budgetary policies have been short-termist and reactive. Instead of cutting real waste in the public sector by increasing productivity and efficiency, the Government has cut public services and the living standards of those who can least afford it, further reducing domestic demand and, thus, employment.

These policies are weakening the economy’s ability to cope with growing debt levels. Without a strong recovery, tax revenues will fail to rise and future budgets will simply embed that deficit into the economy.

This will depress economic activity even further. This explains why the Government’s own forecasts for the deficit keep rising, not despite, but because of, its own deflationary measures. We are heading into a joyless, jobless recovery.

We require fundamentally different policies, a twin track strategy, which will maximise environmental and sustainable progress and restore employment while addressing the deficit. We urgently need measures to tackle five key areas which require fundamental reforms: our substantial physical infrastructure deficits;

our poor social infrastructure – early childhood education is poorly developed, primary and community healthcare lag behind European norms, housing lists continue to lengthen, while Irish public transport remains inadequate and under-funded; our high levels of relative poverty and income inequality; our under-performing indigenous business sector – which needs appropriate support to contribute to our export base, RD and innovation capacity; and our unsustainable reliance on carbon-heavy resources and activities.

It may seem astonishing that we face such economic and social deficits after 15 years of boom but these are the consequences of pursuing a failed low-tax, low-spend model which sought short-term gains from the speculative activity of a small but powerful golden circle.

Only the modernisation of our economic and social base through a sustained investment programme and a transformation of our corporate governance practices can overcome past mistakes. This will need substantial back-up in the form of retraining and return to education to ensure people – whether managers or employees – have the skills to fully exploit the opportunities that investment in innovative enterprise generates.

Educational investment, in particular, will be key to strengthening our export base. Driving competitiveness and productivity in the medium-term, while increasing employment in the short-term, is a win-win scenario.

We must mobilise all the resources available to accomplish this transformation. We still maintain a relatively low-debt status in the euro zone, buttressed by the vast accumulated borrowings in our exchequer cash balances (over €20 billion).

We can employ the strength of our combined public enterprises – their off-balance sheet borrowing and investment capacity to invest in our infrastructure and create new indigenous enterprises, both public and private.

We can further employ new funding vehicles – enterprise development bonds (eg green bonds), municipal bonds and the new National Solidarity Bonds – which can leverage our current high savings ratio and international investment. All this becomes even more necessary given the potential capacity of Nama to pile up considerable debt; at the same time there is little evidence of credit being freed up for investment purposes.

The resources and labour to finance this modernisation drive are there. We just need the political vision and will to make it happen.

Addressing the deficit needs a long-term vision of what kind of taxation system we want. In the short-term we need to target the least deflationary sources of revenue so as not to weaken our recovery prospects. A comprehensive property tax – encompassing both housing and financial assets – should be introduced starting with high income groups and eventually extended to all incomes. Reform of regressive tax expenditures (ie tax breaks that disproportionately benefit high income groups), shown by Tasc to be in the billions of euro, should be urgently undertaken to increase the income tax take. Extension of environmental taxes and incentives should be accelerated. An additional tax band at the higher level is needed.

In the medium term, we should explore the potential of social insurance and local taxation to broaden the tax base while providing real benefits in return. PRSI can be expanded to incorporate a comprehensive free healthcare system (in particular, primary care) as well as earnings-related pensions. Stronger local taxation powers have the potential to be more accountable while providing investment in services responsive to local needs. On the expenditure side, it is time to make public sector workers partners in the process to increase productivity and efficiencies.

As other countries have shown, employee-driven innovation (in both public and private sectors) has the capacity to reduce costs and increase output – much more so than crude, top-down employment and wage-slashing measures.

We can afford neither wasteful policies nor wasteful practices. But elevating the ethos of public service and personal responsibility will require harnessing the collective resources of employees through an open and honest engagement by all stakeholders – one that is not afraid to find and, then, repair fault.

What is absolutely crucial is that these twin approaches – investing in sustainable growth and full employment while addressing the deficit – complement each other.

This will require a level of fiscal management we have as yet not experienced. But it is do-able. Embedding investment, rather than debt, into the economy while restructuring taxation and expenditure in a progressive and expansionary manner to ensure a job-rich recovery – this, and not the current deflationary strategy, is the road to success.

This article has been co-ordinated by Tasc, which describes itself as an independent think-tank dedicated to combating Ireland’s high level of economic inequality and ensuring public policy has equality at its core.

Open Letter To The Government: The Signatories

PROF TERRENCE McDonough, Department of Economics, NUI Galway.

Prof Ray Kinsella, Smurfit Business School, UCD.

Prof David Jacobson, Dublin City University Business School.

Prof Paul Teague, School of Management and Economics, Queens University Belfast.

Prof Peadar Kirby, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick.

Prof Rob Kitchin, National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, NUI Maynooth.

Prof James Wickham, Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

Prof Seán Ó Riain, Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth.

Prof Mark Boyle, Department of Geography, NUI Maynooth.

Dr Jim Stewart, Senior Lecturer in Finance, School of Business, Trinity College Dublin.

Dr Joe Wallace, Kemmy School of Business, University of Limerick.

Dr Michelle OSullivan, Kemmy School of Business, University of Limerick.

Dr Daryl DArt, Dublin City University Business School.

Dr Roland Erne, UCD School of Business.

Dr Proinnsias Breathnach, Department of Geography, NUI Maynooth.

Dr Mary Murphy, Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth.

Dr Colm ODoherty, Department of Applied Social Studies, Tralee Institute of Technology.

Paul Sweeney, economic adviser, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Sinéad Pentony, head of policy, Tasc.

Dr Nat OConnor, Tasc.

Tom O’Connor, lecturer in Economics, Cork Institute of Technology.

Rory OFarrell, European Trade Union Institute (Brussels).

John Corcoran, lecturer in Economics, Limerick Institute of Technology.

Michael Burke, economic consultant (London).

Peter Connell, TCD.

Patrick Kinsella, DIT.

Tony Moriarty and Michael Taft, Unite trade union.

© 2010 The Irish Times

Some 2.8 million of us, two thirds of the Irish population, are younger than 44 years of age. Our politicians, civil servants, bankers, business men and women, decision makers and media commentators are predominantly over 40. As Prof Ray Kinsella said on these pages last week: “We have screwed up – that’s the truth of it.” My generation of 20 and 30-somethings do not identify with the tired voices that have failed us and endowed us with a future choked with their mistakes: mistakes fuelled by mediocrity and downright incompetence without consequences; mistakes that are homeless, absent of acknowledgment or apology.

I may be wrong, but I think it may well have been the generation of 20 and 30-somethings which predominantly voted for the present and last governments. But the past is past. If the younger generation of voters does not in fact relate to the current politics and political practitioners, what is to be done?

Perhaps radical new policies should be discussed. In the words of Paul Sweeney (again the Irish Times, May 7) We cannot go back to cosy Irish capitalism after this recession

And now Village is talking about a new departure.

Well, this website, alternativeparty.org, has been dropping hints for years, but it’s nice to see the need has entered the zeitgeist, and people are actually saying it out loud.

I’m going to muse about a mythical radical new party and give it some policies. Alternative Party of Ireland, or API, with an url of www.alternativeparty.ie

Note: it isn’t a simple thing to form a political party for national elections. Scroll down the discussion Anyone interested in putting together a ‘political party’??? at face.boards.ie to get the details.

It could be called anything, so long as the party itself is radical in the sense that its members and voters think outside the box. Indeed, it could be a current party for all I care.

The first thing it should do is think big. Voters are tired of small parties who only stand in a few constituencies. What’s the point? Even if several TDs are elected, they will only ever be the rump of either of the conservative parties. API should have at least two candidates in every constituency, even three seaters. It’s the pre-requisite to being taken seriously.

It would have to be done on a shoestring, of course, but that’s where technology comes in, as Elaine Bynre realizes. Okay, here’s a skeleton outline, which can of course be improved on.

Purchase the domain alternativeparty.ie. Make sure you do it with my excellent host, Letshost.ie, as you can have 999 sub-domains and MySql databases for the price of one account, ie for less than €100. There are 43 constituencies, so we probably won’t require all 99!
So, for example, http://galway-west.alternativeparty.ie, http://clare.alternativeparty.ie, http://kerry-north.alternativeparty.ie etc.

We’ll use a reliable, democratic and opensource software like WordPress (which runs this site).

I don’t know about other providers, but O2 offers 250 free webtexts per month. Texting via the web isn’t everyone’s preferred method, but it’s easy to type and 250 is a literally powerful amount of texts, if you have ten volunteers in each constituency texting everyone they and their friends and family know about the alternative party website and its consituency subdomains. If you ask those who are interested to text their friends who might be interested, suddenly its viral. As a new way forward is very much in the zeitgeist, perhaps this is an optimum time to intrigue people about such a party.

Each constituency discusses its own problems on its own website and arrives at solutions. These solutions are fed to the main site. www.alternativeparty.ie, and become the bedrock of national policy.

Okay, so that’s the bones of structure, to be fleshed out by those who are interested.

Where will the candidates come from? My guess is that many will come from community groups. Affiliations with groups like The Irish Senior Citizens’ Parliament might prove fruitful.

And what about policies? Several will be suggested in the next post.