Patrick Beggan, a Business with German student at UL, has this to say in today's Irish Times. Patrick feels, quite rightly, that we must focus on knowledge-intensive industries and educational policies to enhance them.
This is fantastic stuff, congratulations to Patrick and the What Next? conference for organizing this event.
We must focus on Ireland's most valuable resource: knowledge
IRELAND FACES the most serious social and economic challenges in a generation. We need new ideas and new thinking.
One of my ideas for Ireland is to provide a clear system of incentives for indigenous firms and entrepreneurial innovation.
In addition to this, education requires continued and increased investment. A recognition that Ireland can no longer offer price-competitiveness may lead to a greater focus on those areas where competitive advantage can be achieved through purposeful investment.
The dictum - often associated with Charlie McCreevy - "if we have money, we will spend it" - is doomed to failure. Government needs to change this grossly inefficient "spend" mentality to one of "investment", thus focusing on long-term increased returns and improved national competitiveness.
Ireland cannot compete on price, language, market access or a wide range of natural resources. In the absence of such we must look to the resources we have, intangibles such as knowledge.
Developing Ireland as a knowledge economy through innovative thinking would create one of these core areas of competitive advantage.
This can be best achieved by increasing access to education and ensuring the highest possible standards there.