Give us your ideas, we need them to help the country. 
Below is a link to a new forum that myself and some others are developing to develop specific and micro-focused ideas for generating recovery in the irish economy. It is heavily influenced by the development of behavioural economics and the experimental approach in applied econometrics.
It will push heavily for micro-level experimentation and reform in public services including innovative approaches to health care delivery, labour market programmes and so on. It will also act as a venue where ideas from other countries can be rapidly fed into the Irish public sphere. A number of events are also planned around the forum. The forum is currently in very early stages and will be chopped and changed a lot in the next week so all comments welcome.
http://geary.ucd.ie/irishrecovery/forum/phpBB3/index.php
Link: Geary Behavioural Economics Blog: Irish Recovery Ideas Forum
My idea is to develop kits for home improvements. Particularly for older council/ corporation type housing which number in thousands. Many people have moved from these properties particularl during the boom rather than extend or refurbish. The recession could be used to incourage owners to extend, refurbish and improve their accommodation from an enviromental and quality perspective.
The kits can be developed to allow for ease of installation. Reducing the cost of the particular item and the cost of installation by mass producing the kits would encourage not only the owners to carryout the work but would also generate employement for individuals small companys without huge outlay. The kit development and production would also encourage small scale local production units, more employement.
I have specific kits in mind
My idea is the following:
I've recorded two albums of country music and blues and would like to sell these nationally and give 1/3 of the proceeds to education. If everyone involved in education bought a copy, there would be more funds available for postgraduate bursaries and so on and no need for fees. This would help avoid harmful cutbacks (which have always proven to be disasterous) and/or the return of fees.
n towns across this county and country, substantial energy resources sit unused. Millions and millions of euros in today's money was spent on infrastructure that lies neglected and, if properly utilized, could be a significant revenue stream for local authorities offsetting energy bills and significantly reducing the national CO2 footprint. Towns like Ennis, Sixmilebridge, Corofin, and Newmarket on Fergus, for example, have water wheel mill races that are still in working order but are not used . These mill races are a significant part of our built heritage and the most important way we can protect and value this heritage is to use it. If today a local authority or private organisation set out to put the mill works in Ennis in place it is unlikely it would get through the planning process and cost would render the projects un-viable.
Install an electric generator at the Mill in Ennis and use the electrical power generated to off set the substantial cost of public lighting at night and the 5000 euro a month electricity bill at Ennis leisure complex during the day. It's a cunning plan, but one that needs careful examination. For example sticking a geared generator to the existing water wheel that was restored a number of years ago is not viable. The problem is it is an undershot water wheel with a low head source. (put simply a very old inefficient design) Today, the requirement for the utilisation of low head hydro power sources for electricity generation is greater than ever. The currently unused low head micro-hydro potential is estimated as 500 MW in Germany and around 600 - 1000 MW in the UK. Although the cost of electricity is stable at the moment, as a country we are over dependent on imported sources of fuel to generate electricity. Sources like the mills in Ennis have the potential to be part of the solution. I would estimate about 100 to 300 MW nationally. Most low head, low flow hydro power sources however are today not exploited since standard turbines cannot be employed economically in such conditions. Properly constructed water wheels offer a solution to this problem. A small number of companies in Germany and the USA are again manufacturing water wheels for electricity generation. The water wheels themselves are, however, based on design manuals from the late 19th Century.