‘Your Country, Your Call’: A Call to Help Transform Ireland
DUBLIN – President Mary McAleese has announced details of a competition aimed at generating ideas to revive the country.
The “Your Country, Your Call” initiative is the brainchild of the president's husband, Martin. Its goal is to find and reward two “truly transformational proposals” that will help create prosperity and jobs for Ireland.
“Your Country, Your Call” will award the two winning proposals with a prize of EU100,000 each and both proposals will then be implemented with the support of an independent working group and with a development fund of up to EU500,000 for each project.
There do not appear to be any boundaries as to the nature of the proposals provided they help “change the way we do things, allow businesses to grow, employment to be created and prosperity to flourish.”
The intention is to give all those who are interested the chance to share their creativity “to give life to new industry, revitalise or revolutionise an existing market, or even change the way we do business entirely.”
It's not, we were told, about creating new products but about “creating something that will make a long term positive impact on the future of Ireland, its people, and its economy.”
According to the website, which will be the home for the competition, it's about “helping to create future prosperity, whilst at the same time generating hope, confidence, and positive thinking.”
Martin McAleese has recruited some significant names to work with the project. The not-for-profit organisation which will administer the competition is chaired by former Bank of Ireland governor Lawrence Crowley and among the board members is Martin Murphy, managing director of Hewlett Packard. Backers have already committed to donating EU2 million.
A publicity campaign has contributions from singer Christy Moore, businessman Padraig Ó Céidigh, broadcaster Olivia O'Leary, author Cecelia Ahern and actor Amy Huberman.
The competition is open for entries until April 30 after which the entries will be reviewed, assessed and filtered down over the summer to a point where two winning entries are selected in the middle of September 2010.
For more information, see: www.yourcountryyourcall.com.
|
