Ireland

The issue of better regulation for dangerous breeds of dogs is starting to get a bit serious right now in Ireland. This is one where the solution is simple, but might not be easy for governments and councils to see.

Many people cannot control their dogs. But those people still bring their dogs to public places. They don't understand that this is a problem.

They don't have the discipline to train their dogs. Or they don't have the time or interest. And nobody is forcing them to do so.

People propose many solutions, like banning certain dangerous breeds, enforcing muzzling, licensing, etc. These solutions are familiar, but wrong. They punish educated dogs and savage ones alike.

Being a good dog or a bad dog does not depend on breed. It is true that some breeds are harder to train, and some breeds are more dangerous when untrained. But any dog of any breed can be raised to be good or bad, safe or dangerous.

Dogs must be banned from all public spaces, unless muzzled and leashed, or unless they have passed a test. They get a collar of a specific colour and design when they pass.

There could be various levels of exam. The dogs which pass higher levels are allowed more freedoms.

For example:

1. Does not react aggressively to children
2. Does not react aggressively to other dogs
3. Can be pet by strangers
4. Obeys instructions to return to owner, when off lead
5. Can resist eating food left out, when directed to
6. Can resist chasing a small animal like a cat or pigeon, when directed to

No dog is required to do any test, but tests are required to go certain places or do certain things. For example level 5 might be required to enter a picnic area. You could imagine pubs and shops allowing dogs which have level 3. Level 2 might be required to be allowed off the lead in a park. Level 1 to go outside without a muzzle.

Because the collars are visible, the rules are enforceable.

There are a few things that need to be decided. Whether puppies should have collars with adjustable size. Whether the collar should be non-removable by the owner. Whether the collar should be generic, or have identification on it, like owner's name or microchip ID number.

I only heard about this because I know someone who is thinking of availing of it.

Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant

This could be a big part of the reason for the housing shortage, because so many homes are being left empty in order to avail of this grant.

The RTE needs money from the public each year to run. But

• Direct funding by the government gives the government too much influence over content.
• Funding from the licence fee is not secure because many people don't want to pay, since they discovered all the money-laundering and theft going on in RTE.
• Advertising does not make the RTE enough money.

The funding model should also give the RTE an incentive to behave better in the future. It must be a source that can shrink in proportion to RTE's continuing misbehaviour.

The best way is to add a an extra charge to everyone's annual income tax bill. It could be 50€ per taxpayer, to replace the existing 160€ per household. People who don't pay tax don't pay the charge. So this is more progressive than the TV licence fee was.

On the tax declaration form, there is a multiple choice. The taxpayer can choose whether his fee should go to the RTE or somewhere else more deserving. If he ticks several boxes, the fee will be split between several beneficiaries. The choices could be, for example

1. RTE
2. Medicins sans frontieres
3. Vincent de Paul
4. A subsidy for theatre companies
5. Funding for artists and musicians
6. A fund for free open-source software developers

For the last two, figuring out a way to fairly distribute the money could be tricky, but still worthwhile.

There will also be an option to increase the payment to the chosen cause, to 100€ or 200€.

TG4 13:30, GAA Beo – Dingle v Castlehaven in the Munster Football Final.

TG4 15:45, GAA Beo – Scotstown v Glen in the Ulster Football Final.

It looks like the current government will not take action on the urgent issues of our time. The most urgent is climate change but it's not the only one.

Any maybe no future government take action either. It's the nature of our political system that governments ignore long-term problems.

There is only one way to force the issue.

We must find a single issue with overwhelmingly popular support. Then we organise a national strike over it.

It must be a specific actionable realistic issue. For example

• A fair sales tax on all products which produce carbon dioxide or methane, in proportion to their global warming effect per kilo. This would include concrete, beef, fertilizer, fossil fuels, steel. The money shall be used to fund a cut in the general VAT rate. So these products rise in price and everything else, every less polluting product, drops in price.
• A boycott on Israel until it grants non-Jews in territories it controls equal civil rights.
• A ban on vulture funds owning housing.

First we need a public figure, or anyone influential or persuasive, to spearhead this action.

Who can do it?

Are the ministers completely ignorant of economics, or are they running a racket to transfer money from people to developers?

Why can't employers find enough people to do the work of society? There aren't enough people available to work as teachers, vets, bus drivers, etc. All these common, essential jobs are going unfilled in large numbers, leading to problems in the functioning of society as a whole.

And this despite rising poverty levels forcing ever more women into the workforce, and high immigration rates increasing the relative number of people of working age.

So what are the adults of Ireland all doing, that they're not available to do these jobs?

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-lfs/labourforcesurveyquarter22021/employment/

Well for a start, 15% are working in "motor vehicles". This sounds too high. I'm sure this industry does not need so many people. It's the same number as work in "human health".

How can this number be reduced, to allow more people to work in more valuable jobs?

1. Extra tax on high earning jobs like "motor vehicle" tradesmen? This could be used to fund higher salaries for jobs like driving buses. If the market is thus manipulated so essential jobs pay better, people will switch jobs and the problem is solved.

2. Promote cars which are more durable and require less frequent maintenance. Punish the sale of new cars and especially cars which cannot easily be maintained by the owner, or whose parts cannot easily and cheaply be acquired by normal people.

Encouraging electric bikes and electric cars will not help. I mean it won't help in general, but it especially won't help with this problem. Electric bikes and electric cars require more frequent maintenance and replacement than conventional cars. It is possible to design electric vehicles which are far more durable that petrol ones, because of technology advantages. But that will not happen until it is promoted through taxation, as above.

3. The need for vehicles in general is proportional to how badly towns are planned. Housing, jobs, and amenities and leisure need to be placed near each other. The placement should be enforced by planning law. This reduces commuting distances and increases usage of "mobilités douces".

So only #3 is the real solution. Through a happy coincidence, this is also the solution to most of society's other problems, like the housing crisis, drug use and bad behaviour and petty crime, global warming, etc.

Although #3 is simple and obvious, it requires critical thinking which the current government is not capable of. So it is worth remembering for after the next election.

Someone asked me what the government should be doing differently about the housing crisis. I ended up with this list. So it's not exhaustive.

I think all of these are necessary to have a functioning housing market which (1) allows people to live in peace (2) builders to work productively to produce useful housing (3) stop investors gouging people (4) allows people to easily move house when they need to (5) allows people to choose to rent or house as suits their needs without huge costs.

But if any one of these is enacted it will tangible improve many people's lives. Some of these I have already written about before in more depth. Others I will write about soon. I understand that most readers won't see the value of these without a lot more explanation.

1. zoning offices vs housing in areas which lack them
2. incentivise appts w amenities instead of big houses (planning law depends on local need for cheap housing)
3. big tax per land area (or per house) & big UBI/subsidy for each resident/person
4. big vacancy tax, using the register of people's addresses instead of self-certification. owners unwilling to pay must forfeit the property to the state.
5. remove costs of moving (stamp duty, seller does survey, govt does conveyancing)
6. price control (like capital gains tax / rental windfall tax)
7. tenants rights (ban on no fault evictions, sell the house with the tenants, tenants first right to buy, inspections, whistleblowing hotline, etc)
8. ban businesses owning housing (exemptions for universities etc who can get licences)
9. Ban on anyone owning >2 houses
10. open land register - know about vacancy rates and amenities/jobs/houses ratio

Posted this on Pixelfed, shame to see old buildings fall apart like this. Leads me to wonder who gains from all the derelict buildings close to the new hospital? I'd imagine their value has significantly increased!

Hit and runs have been in the news a lot lately. More people need dashcams. But most people have no urgent need to buy one, and they are hassle to install.

This is an easy one for the government to fix. Decree that every garage must offer to do dashcam installation during routine services. Optionally, decree that they must do it for no extra charge.

When a good portion of people take up this option, there will be a critical mass of carmeras on the roads. Hit and runs will become very risky. When people know there is a chance the accident has been recorded, they will not run.

Uniquely, this solution does not enable ubiquitous surveillance by the state, because dashcams are not internet-connected.

It will also be useful that other types of accidents and events will be recorded. People will hesitate before doing anything violent or illegal in the street, when footage can be easily sent to the gardaí or the media. This includes dangerous not-illegal driving, searching for missing people etc.

This is simple, free, and necessary. It must be done now.

Where can I buy individual PC parts (like Power Supply Unit and PC Case) in Dublin? I checked Curry's and Harvey Norman both didn't have individual parts.

I guess only the rich will be getting a tax cut in the next budget.

We have this problem, especially since the Covid educational chaos, that examiners are under pressure to inflate grades. This is understandable and happening for good reasons.

It predictably creates the problem that there are too many people scoring 100% on tests. With many people on identical marks, universities cannot select the students with the best aptitudes.

They are starting to do lotteries. This is unfair. It means that the whole leaving cert has failed to do its job of testing students for eligibility for university. It is not properly filtering students into courses by aptitude. If universities are going to do lotteries to select students, we don't need a leaving cert at all.

The solution is old and well known. the exams are written using whatever scoring system is deems appropriate for that subject. It does not need to be out of 100. Then the results are converted into percentiles, using the bell curve. This means that the best 1% of students get a mark of 100, the worst 1% get 1, and the median/average students get 50. All the other marks follow the same pattern.

(To be kind, it might be decided to give all the worst 10% of students a mark of 10. There might be gaps where for example a mark of 71 does not exist, only 70 and 72, but that is easily dealt with by the simple algorithm.)

There will be no grade inflation. The whole annual stress and debate becomes obsolete and we can focus on the many real issues and problems with the leaving cert.

Percentiles and statistics (L-estimators in this case) are very common in the adult world. L-estimators are fundamental to medicine, engineering, science, etc. It is good that students and teachers become familiar with them. This method is not complex or weird or confusing. If students get used to it, it will help them understand the world better and perform in their careers.

I think this is great news and I hope the work begins soon. Obviously public infrastructure will need to be improved accordingly but overall, positive steps!