Michelle Mulherin wants National Service. I agree

Fine Gael TD Michelle Mulherin from Mayo wants National Service. I think she wants it for unemployed people. Talking to Pat Kenny on RTE this morning she seemed to relate unemployment to Social Welfare Abuse. I have a novel way of introducing National Service although it will not please Michelle. My National Service would call up about 10,000 people a year for basic army, naval or or air core training. I don't think the Defence Forces  could cope with any more. My plan would also create 10,000 good jobs. Because all those I would call up would be wealthy people. You wouldn't get in to my army unless you had income of over €200,000 a year. My plan would be to make National Service compulsory. Mulherin claims she would have it voluntary. My NS would be conducted as in Australia by a national draw for those aged 17 - 22. But I would not be recruiting kids like that. I would set the age group at about Michelle's age. According to Fintan O'Toole there are 30,000 millionaires in Ireland so there's plenty of army fodder out there. These recruits would take a years unpaid leave and do standard army training. An unemployed person would replace these people for training or employment. Civil Servants would of course be included in this national lottery for recruits. Hundreds of millions would be saved for taxpayers as the new recruits would only be paid the standard army rate instead of €200,000 to €1m a year. Those who would replace the wealthy would not be paid the same wages as top civil servants and Judges etcetera. As they would be coming off the dole they would be paid a basic wage of €50k a year which they would jump at enthusiastically.

The benefits to the new rich recruits would be massive. They would learn what the ordinary man in the street has to live with. They would learn how to have discipline and respect for others. As well as Defence Force training they would train as voluntary workers delivering meals on wheels, scraping snow off the streets etc. The final two weeks of his/her training would be spent in a prison to show these rich people how Ireland treat people who cant pay their TV licence, or pay off a debt or maybe are caught with a baldy tyre or even have a mental health problem. So Michelle I do hope you qualify for National Service. I'm sure it will make a better person out of you.

My Nomination for President of Ireland

If I had a say in the nomination for President of Ireland I would nominate a man. My man would have a wife and six children, be unemployed and perhaps have a disability, such as depression. He would live in a council house (obviously) with little or no facilities in his estate. At least one of his children would be educationally or otherwise disadvantaged. My nomination would have been a hard worker, a pillar of his community, a good father and husband. My choice for the Aras now represents 450,000 adults in Ireland who are unemployed. Also thier wives, thier children and perhaps thier mums and dads or grand parents and grand children. So my nomination for President statistically already represents two million people in Ireland four months before the election. So he has the election won.

Now to get my man nominated I need to get the consent of four County Councils, or twenty TD's or Senators. But my nominee doesn't know anyone who earns €100,000 or above a year. And all those County Councillours and TD's and Senators don't want to know my man. When my man has an emergency he sometimes would go to St. Vincent De Paul. But expenses for the Presidential elections are not counted as an emergency by St Vincent De Paul.

Barak Obama told us of a different way to become the representative of a country. The American dream. Not any one can become  the President of Ireland. Anyone can become the President of America. Only the wealthy or the representatives of the wealthy will become the President of Ireland. I hope Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese will bring this fact to the attention of the Irish people before the Presidential election in October 2011.