And if you look at countries like Switzerland or The Netherlands, it's pretty clear that they're wealtier than we are. Walk around Sandymount green - in the middle of one of the richest parts of Ireland. Crumbling pavements, potholed roads, kids in prefabs at the local schools.

Walk into A&E at Vincents. It'll cost you, and it'll be packed. A few years ago we had reason to call 999 and the ambulance guys told us "No....we won't take them to A&E. It's like a war zone up there. They're better off here." On other occasions my wife and one of the kids spent days waiting on a chair in Temple Street....being looked after but not getting a bed.

Ireland should be as rich as Luxembourg and Switzerland and as the state of Massachusets - and not using dodgy numbers. And however you like to align your left/right politics, it'd be a lot easier to fund schools and hospitals if we were actually that well off.

So...that's "Vision part 1" for Ireland. We should be looking at making Ireland an actually well off country. Not a makey-uppey well off country.

That has lots of implications for economic policy.

• It means making markets work for the betterment of people, and to stop making markets work for the enrichment of a few....which is often the case in Ireland. And yes, through markets as much as possible. They're efficient.

• It means making tax policy more just (that includes wealth and property taxes), and probably reducing income taxes at the top end.

• It means relentless action to make provision of public services better and more cost effective (a focus on public services and not on public servants).

• It does NOT mean doing anything to chase the multinationals out of the country. Absolutely not.

• It means taking more advantage of their presence and helping people like EI take more advantage of the great successes of the IDA. There are several areas where the presence of the multinationals makes it hard for indigenous companies to compete, e.g. for staff. Those can be worked on.

Socially?

Socially, how should Ireland be?

Well, we seem to be emerging from a bad religious nightmare that - from the little I know - really started in the mid-19th century and continued unabated until about 1990. We've been emerging slowly since then.

Domination by various churches has not done Ireland any favours.

For me, Ireland still tends to be a bit "pigeon-holing"....with a tendency to want to put people in a box and in a category. I don't care if you're gay or straight or black or white or man or woman. We are all human and that's what matters. Putting people into ever increasing pigeon-holes isn't the solution. Far better to take people as they are, and not to insist on boxes to put them in. Tolerance and inclusivity does not have to mean "I have a new box to put you in" or that everyone has to be in a box.

People are people. We need to make that attitude the prevailing one.

Environmentally?

Ireland is fortunate in that our temperate climate is likely to be more robust against climate change than many places. That's nice, but it's not an excuse for moving slowly. We should be a leader in getting green power, in moving to bikes, in replacing our ICE cars with far fewer electric cars, in making agriculture less polluting. Currently, while everyone talks about it, progress is glacial and opposed every step of the way.

• The Sandymount Bike path and policy around bikes in general.

• Upgrades to the national grid to allow for renewables.

• Tax policy on CO2 emissions.

• Pollution of our beaches.

• etc, etc....

Summing Up

"Visions" are hard to write down. It'll take me ages, but I'll do it. This is a start. I have in my head an idea of an Ireland that has all the wealth of the Netherlands or Switzerland, the civic pride that I saw in Barcelona, the inclusivity that Ireland already often shows....just more, the housing policies of a country that looks after its people, etc.