Who’s behind it?

The Ideas Campaign is independent and non-political. It has been modestly funded by AMAS, a Dublin-based online consultancy whose Managing Director Aileen O’Toole is leading the campaign. She’s a former business editor and was the co-founder of The Sunday Business Post newspaper. For more details, visit the AMAS website.
The campaign is staffed by two highly-qualified people who have lost their jobs because of the recession, with support from several volunteers as well as AMAS’s directors and staff.
The campaign has received several offers of support. We don’t have any other funders, in order to maintain the campaign’s independence and its grassroots integrity.
Other offers, which have enabled us to stretch our low budget and do not compromise the campaign’s ethos, have been accepted. Those details will be published on the site later in the month.

How it started

The seeds for the Ideas Campaign were sown on RTÉ’s Prime Time special on the economy, broadcast on 14 January 2009. Aileen O’Toole was a guest on the programme and spoke to presenter Mark Little about:
• The positive aspects of economic activity that were receiving little attention
• The need to look forward, not backwards
• The government’s “smart economy” plan
This contribution met with a huge response, particularly from business people who said that we needed to be having different conversations about the Irish economy – ones that are about looking forward, ones that recognise the many positive aspects of Irish economic life and ones that will ultimately send a powerful signal about Ireland across the world.
We’re hoping that this campaign will start those conversations.
The Ideas Campaign is conscious that we need to set realistic expectations about what can be achieved. We also want to ensure that our action plan is practical and achievable.
We have set up a small Advisory Group and invited a number of leading figures to participate. They bring a wealth of experience from the worlds of business, academia, economics and the public sector. This group will advise on the ideas we receive and how best to structure and present them in an action plan for government.
Leading figures join Ideas Campaign Advisory Group
The Ideas Campaign announced the members of its Advisory Group tonight, and details of how ideas submitted to the campaign team will be evaluated and presented in the campaign’s action plan to the Government.
The Advisory Group comprises leading figures from business, policy, academia, economics, the arts and the voluntary sector. They will provide strategic advice to the campaign and help shape the action plan.

The Advisory Group members are:
• Moya Doherty, Producer of Riverdance, the world-acclaimed theatrical phenomenon
• Sean Gallagher, Chief Executive, Smarthomes (and Dragons’ Den judge)
• Frank Gormley, Chair, Howard Eurocape and Founder St. Patrick’s Trust
• Alan Gray, Economist, Indecon
• Paul Mooney, President National College of Ireland
• Kieran McGowan, former Chief Executive of the IDA
• Ian McShane, Chief Executive, Behaviour & Attitudes
• Paul Rellis, Chief Executive, Microsoft Ireland
• Tina Roche, Chief Executive, Business in the Community
• Don Thornhill, Chair, National Competitiveness Council
Campaign Director Aileen O’Toole said: “We have assembled a first-rate team of innovators, creative thinkers and high achievers.
“They all share the belief that the Ideas Campaign can act as a catalyst for positive, practical solutions that can benefit the Irish economy and help lift the nation’s spirits.”

The Advisory Group believes that it is important to re-emphasise that this campaign is happening against the backdrop of a serious economic situation and a crisis in the public finances.

The Ideas Campaign is focusing on ideas for economic renewal and recovery, but the Group believes it is important for citizens to understand that ideas put forward to Government must be realistic and achievable.

Procedure for reviewing ideas
The Advisory Group has agreed the following procedure for reviewing ideas received.
1. The campaign team will review all ideas received by the IdeasCampaign website.
2. A sample of these ideas will be published each working day until 31 March when the campaign finishes. This sample will show the diversity of the ideas received. Ideas will be edited by the campaign team for length, and legal considerations. No confidential data will be included. The Ideas Campaign stresses that inclusion on the website does not indicate that an idea will be included in the action plan.
3. An external team of experts will review and evaluate ideas for their relevance to economic renewal and recovery. A significant announcement about this element will be made next week.
4. The expert analysis will be presented in draft form to the Advisory Group when it meets in April.
5. The Advisory Group will consider this initial analysis and propose changes and the roadmap for delivery of the action plan to Government.
6. The Advisory Group will sign off an action plan based on the final approved analysis, and make proposals to Government on implementing the action plan.
7. The Ideas Campaign action plan will be presented to Government.
8. The campaign website will be the primary forum through which the campaign will update citizens about the action plan.
9. As indicated by An Taoiseach Brian Cowen in his statement last weekend, the Ideas Campaign action plan will be “fast-tracked to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Renewal for assessment and implementation, where appropriate.”

Traffic and activity on the Ideas Campaign website has exceeded all expectations since the campaign was launched last Thursday (5 March).
There have been 18,787 visits and 1,742 ideas logged on to the Campaign’s website up to midnight last night. More than 500 of those ideas were received in the last 24 hours alone.