Things from other countries that would improve quality of life in Ireland

41 comments

1. Trees covering city streets for shelter from sun and just looking nice.

2. Yeah litter, grime and dog shit is appauling in this country. Sick of seeing all these promotions to go walk here and there and then I have to somehow get the dog shit off my son’s bicycle tires before the journey home.

3. I’ve always wondered what the inside of those downstairs toilets outside trinity looked like.

4. Laws that mandate actual prison sentences. Enough with the suspended sentence bullshittery.

   Defendents with 100+ convictions getting a slap on the wrist time and time again. This is why we have problems on our streets.

5. I haven’t been out much since covid but we did have the street cleaners out en masse at 3-4am each morning pre covid

   There was even a TV series about it

6. Dublin council to actually do their job and keep the streets clean.

7. Ubiquitous separated cycle infrastructure in all towns,
   A metro in Dublin,
   Public toilets near green spaces in towns

8. A proper public transport system.

   Start building highrises in citys . Nothing outrageous but over 100m isn’t too much to ask. Mixed use .

   Legalise cannabis.

9. In Poland you can pay for the bus using a QR code, no messing about with a leap card

10. The Dutch public transport system and bike infrastructure.

11. A decent public transport system would be great.

12. A subterranean rail. Metro/Subway/Underground etc.

    In Vancouver if you want to build apartment buildings in the city centre you are required to put a green park the same size as the footprint of the building beside it i.e 50% building/50% public park. As a result its generally a beautiful City,(Hastings has serious drug & homeless issues hence “generally”)

13. Public transport actually being on time, or at least give you something you can show your employer if they caused you to be late. They do that in Japan, even saw an article where the rail company issued a formal apology because the train left 20 seconds early!

14. Far far more public toilets. Especially at scenic places you’re likely to visit.

    In Australia you could be in the middle of fucking nowhere doing some track walk in the bush, and there’ll at least be a drop toilet at the start of the track. Also toilets on the pull in bits on the motorway.

15. It baffles me that a government’s job can be entirely plagiarised from other countries – we would even welcome it – and yet they don’t steal from others. It’s like taking an exam and realising you can literally see the correct answers and copy them for yourself, and not be reprimanded for it.

    We can see what works in other countries, we can see how it might (or might not) work in our country. We can copy those practices and apply them here, and yet we don’t.

    The government here have the opportunity for *consistent* easy wins, even just by attempting what’s working for other countries, and yet they don’t bother. This thread is full of examples already. It annoys me.

16. KOTATSU!!!!

    Every house should have one in our cold damp depressing winters.

17. It’ll likely never happen but..

    The free public transport of Luxembourg. Such a stress free, cost free way to get around, can’t praise it enough but of course the situations are both very different.

    Me and a mate were in Luxembourg recently for 2 nights, between us we totted up about €60-€70 in potential transport savings which when you’re away for a weekend break goes a long way on other things like food or attractions, you definitely notice the extra few quid in your budget that’s for sure.

    As for being a local, the incentive for using public transport is now huge and opens up possibilities you wouldn’t bother doing otherwise.

    But yeah, like I said, two very different situations that’ll likely never happen here, but I guess it’s nice to think about ha

18. High rise buildings. Our cities have huge footprints for small populations.

19. Collect all rubbish free and put a levy on packaging to pay for it.

    Incentivise’s householders to deal with it properly and retailers etc to minimise it in the first place.

20. Just been on a tour of the country with my Spanish girlfriend and her parents, they couldn’t believe the lack of bins, especially in Dublin, the city is absolutely filthy compared to the rest of the country, it desperately needs night street cleaning and much more bins. They mentioned how young the homeless were in Dublin too, that was it, they loved the rest, especially the free tap water…

    As a Dub myself it was quite embarrassing they ranked it lowest, I kept them away from the worse parts too…

21. Bins, they are impossible to find. Sick of the argument asking people to bring home rubbish, just provide the bins in the first place.

22. A glass and plastic bottle deposit scheme like in Germany and other European countries. Lidl and Aldi already follow the concept over there and it would be great to see it adopted here.

23. Late evening spaces for people to go and not have to drink. I was in Lisbon recently and loved time out market. Sitting there for hours just getting different plates of food for the table some people were drinking but there wasn’t q vibe that you had to drink you could juat chill and chat away!

    Also the drying racks in Nordic countries, best thing I ever had when I lived in Finland.

24. * Foot flush pedals on toilets, foot grab things on toilet doors and pedal activated sinks. No more sensors on hand dryers, buttons only.
    * Traffic cops who police bad driving instead of only speeding.
    * Extra bank holiday
    * Removed scumbags from city centres. Has to be safe enough to bring kids to.
    * Proper cheap public childcare
    * Cable cars. Don’t know where to, but they are great.
    * proper forests, not just shitty coillte spruce plantations.

25. I’m a bit disillusioned at the moment but my city council (DCC) can’t even do the basics so anything else is just a pipe dream. I admire your optimism though.

26. Stop (expensive) school uniforms.

27. Requiring to have liscenes for all pets/animals owned by anyone. With this requirements for chipping and DNA registration to allow fines to be issued to people who aren’t picking up after their animals. Fold this in with a no nonsense policy of removing abused animals.

28. Mallorca – tapping on and off buses using your debit card

    New York – nightly Street cleaning

    Edit: New York is still a very car heavy city but around central park etc they’ve separated cycle lanes from moving traffic with a lane of parked cars. Simple enough workaround

29. Benches! Outside of stephen greens there are zero benches. Pain in the feet to walk all day.

    And remove the tenency to enclose everything in fences. Every property big or small has some sort of fence. Very uninviting to the neighborhood.

    A construction area which was already fenced off, they put 2 more layers of fences inside.. what?

    3x fences in construction area. Nice

30. I’d settle for a rail link to the airport at this stage.

31. I moved to Finland for studies about 3 years ago. I’ll mention some of the things that I really like here.

    * Bottle recycling, I know many European countries do it, you return your bottles and you get some money out of it. This means that anyone will return a bottle, there are people walking around during festivals, just collecting bottles and returning them for some cash. Its a win win situation.

    * Better Mental health care, I got diagnosed with ADHD when I was in Finland, the process did take some time, but it was fairly straightforward and most importantly I didn’t pay shit, my student healthcare covered it. Also the treatment options for ADHD is very bad in Ireland.

    * ID verification using banking system – Once you open a bank account in Finland you use that online banking to prove your ID for pretty much everything, be it health services/signing up for some internet or other stuff, you just log in using your online banking stuff and all your details are there. Its so handy.

    * Access to your medical records online – Every time you visit your doctor or go for any medical procedures the doctors keep a record of it, you can actually see this online, including the doctors comment on the appointment. This is meant for other doctors, so the whole thing is written in Finnish, but its nice to sometimes look over it. You also have your prescriptions in the same website, so if you need to renew it, its just few buttons to press and you have your new prescription and you can print that off.

    * This one is kinda silly, but at the stores in Finland the checkouts have a divider, so your groceries goes into one section and when they are done with you, they just move it and the next persons stuff goes into the other half of the checkout, no more packing shit in a hurry. [Here is the picture of it](https://imgur.com/CuKQuiy)

    * Again another silly thing, [but I really love dish drying cupboards above the sink](https://imgur.com/XlZawzd)

    * Affordable student housing, I live in a 53s square meter apartment. The rent includes water, heating, electricity and a high speed internet. I pay €527 for it.

    * Public transport, paying €40 for a monthly student ticket and that includes both the bus and tram.

32. Urban and suburban parks that aren’t surrounded by fences or walls on all sides.

    Light public spaces up at night instead of closing them.

    More public tennis/basketball courts as well, again without closing times.

    Larger and better developed beach towns/cities. There are plenty in the UK and the Netherlands, so don’t use our weather as an excuse.

    More trees in general, but especially on the coast, where there are often none whatsoever.

    ~~More~~ bins. It doesn’t matter that people shouldn’t litter anyway, the reality is some people will litter no matter what you tell them. It wouldn’t completely solve the problem, but it would definitely make a big difference. It’s not “helping the offenders”, it’s helping everyone.

33. A proper waste disposal system. You would think that by now, Irish people would have figured out a way to not have seagulls ripping appart bin bags that are left for collection on the streets. It leaves it all looking like shite. Most countries in Europe have proper trash containers where animals cannot get into.

    Also, bins that are regularly emptied. No bins to be found for kilometers in the city center.

34. Trains that go everywhere around the country

35. Public toilets in all public spaces would be a great idea. This is the 1st country I’ve been to where there are no toilets in tourist spots, parks or hiking spots?! And they are desperately needed in the cities. Same for bins. There’s a few but not enough

36. Building upwards. Ireland is the only country where I’ve heard people unironically refer to a six story building as a skyscraper.

37. Having pedestrian side on the country roads. Being a cyclist or pedestrian outside of cities is a nightmare in Ireland.

38. Dublin’s insistance on flagging everything in sight with white granite and never bloody washing it once in ten years is a mystery to me. Manky.

39. Local transportation and more hospitals. A town the size of Killarney would have one of its own in England especially with the amount of tourists it attracts in the summer months. I find it crazy that the nearest one is a forty minute drive away in Tralee

40. I’ve just back from a month in France, which is far from being the cleanest country in Europe, and yet coming back home to Ireland was a shock, the level of litter here, both in cities but also in nature is appalling.
    Ireland could do with more bins, more bin collections and more cleaning of its public spaces, and I don’t mean once a month, I mean every day, have a proper cleaning service!

41. Lowering CGT and deemed disposals on ETFs.

    And rewinding with native deciduous trees, rather than conifer plantations that support no biodiversity