The Irish Knowledge Economy
I was recently mailed this 11 minute clip from Irish Broadcaster RTE. Broadcast last January, its focus is that Ireland could respond positively to a dire set of economic circumstances through the smarts of its people.
As one of the interviewees says about the property boom that precipitated the crisis, it’s now time to concentrate on intellectual property.
Thanks to Barry Davis of Creganna, one of the companies featured in the clip. Barry is a member of of the Learning and Skills Group, and is using it to build his own knowledge and skills, and to share his insights with others – a good example of valuable social networking in practice.
Ireland’s been here before, of course. Before the property boom and all it brought with it, an Irish Development Agency advertising campaign in the 1980s focused on attracting external investment into the country.
It was over 25 years ago, but I have a very clear memory of reading in Scientific American an advert with the slogan We’re the Young Europeans. It grabbed my attention. It grabbed others’, too, and was part (along with some handsome EU funding) of creating Ireland’s economic success at the end of the last century.
Here’s hoping that they’ll have a similar success at the beginning of this one.
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Donald H Taylor 
Nice alliterative idea, but the cost of living and cost of public service salaries will stop it happening. There needs to be drastic cuts in public sector spending along with bank reforms and many other structural changes before they pin their hopes on a slogan.
Hi Donald
You’re right that structural change is important in Ireland. In fact, all through that RTE piece is a real sense of how massively disappointed everyone is that their politicians have let them down so badly.
Financial change is going to come – albeit way too late. It looks as if majority state ownership in AIB and Bank of Ireland is in the offing, and one recent, serious recommendation was for Euro 1.5 bn savings in a range of cuts – and we can expect other cuts, too.
On the other hand, the ray of hope I get from all this is that it hasn’t *all* gone to hell in a handcart, and that some organisations do seem to be doing things right despite everything.
Actually some changes have come. The changes in the mid-year budget are an incentive for people to put intellectual property into their strategies.
It is a sign that Ireland is serious about IP, which is a crucial element of the strategy for building the smart economy.
I have a lot of confidence. The building blocks are there. However it will not happen by accident.
I expand a bit on that here:
http://intellectualprofit.blogspot.com/
Cuts and competitiveness are necessary, but let’s not forget about activities to generate value and sustainable growth.