Cabinet reshuffle will be crucial for future of technology sector

damien

Cabinet reshuffle will be crucial for future of technology sector

Karlin Lillington
17/09/2004

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At the risk of sending some readers off screaming into the night, I am going to offer yet another consideration of the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle and the two posts most relevant to technology. Those two roles are currently held by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, and by Mr Ahern, the Minister for Communications.

Each position has been, and will continue to be, of crucial importance. Each has been filled by someone well able to comprehend and address - if not always successfully - the issues that arise in the technology and life sciences sector. It is easy enough to highlight failures or insist the road not taken was the one we should have gone down. But in general, each has managed a very tough portfolio in an atrociously fast-changing area of great complexity, showing at times both nuance and firmness - a balance very hard to achieve.

On the thumbs-up side, Ms Harney has pushed a pitifully neglected national research agenda that perhaps no one else would have cared about nor understood with the kind of gut empathy she has shown. This may be her real legacy, although she has also shown she is adept at understanding how deep the roots of the technology and life science industries go into the national economy, and how crucial they are to a healthy economy in the future.

On the communications side, Mr Ahern was landed with the nightmare issue of domestic broadband connectivity - or rather the lack of same. For that reason, the communications portfolio is one of the poisoned chalices of Government, because progress would always be slow, criticisms loud and continuous, and the entrenched incumbent operator, Eircom, a thorn in the side of policy ambitions.

But Mr Ahern forced flat-rate access through, years after it should have been on offer. He also has presided over the gradual build-out of a fibre network across the State. The completion of the various fibre rings should open up competition in the home and business broadband market, and expand broadband access into the regions.

If both ministers move on, their successors face major challenges. On the enterprise side, many in the business, science and technology community fear a less committed minister will eviscerate important research bodies such as Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), and choke off the flow of money to that risky and hard-to- turn-into-votes area of R&D.

A new minister will also be presiding over one of the most important transformations in the State's economic development, the movement towards the often-discussed but little understood "knowledge economy".

But getting such investment and changeover means keeping an eye on numerous balls. Key among them are education - to nurture a future workforce, and centres of knowledge and research excellence; finance - to both invest wisely and create tax structures for individuals, business and society that make this State an attractive place to invest and live; and national infrastructure - as without the research facilities, the transport systems, the communications networks, the thoughtfully planned towns and cities, business won't come and people won't stay.

In addition, driving investment means knowing when well-intentioned policy should not be forced on the unwilling. A good example of this is eBay's investment here, which was nearly lost due to Government and IDA insistence that the company should go to the regions, despite its pleas that it had no interest in going anywhere but Dublin. Off-hand , I can't think of who might fill Ms Harney's shoes - staying on top of this sprawling Department is truly daunting.

On the communications side, the minister will need to keep lashing the back of the telecommunications providers and continuously assess whether ministerial interventions are called for (or overdue, as in the case of flat-rate access). Then, though fibre networks are going in, it is unclear how they will be run, or if current plans will enable communities or businesses to take full advantage of this resource.

This Department also drove some important social and community technology programmes which were transferred away, and then demolished (as many fear may happen with SFI). This was shameful - these were significant programmes that help communities embrace technology.

Some in Government need to remember that the State's success and prosperity is not just about business, but also about people and the general capability and creativity of all of society.

At this point, you might have noticed no mention of the one exclusively technology-dedicated role in government - that of E-Minister, which went to Ms Mary Hanafin. As many predicted, this is a job that really went nowhere - not only was the able Ms Hanafin loaded down with other briefs, including Chief Whip, but the position was vested with little power to compel anyone to do anything.

Also, Ms Hanafin never seemed very excited by this potentially very significant role. Mostly, she seemed to launch things or make opening speeches - often quite good ones - but E-Minister has remained little but a figurehead role.

Perhaps the role should be eliminated - certainly it seems the new role of chief science adviser to Government may well be where the real power to change and influence lies.

And the first office-holder, Dr Barry McSweeney, has already made clear in an initial talk that he plans to move and shake, in as much as he can, as he advises.

De Rebel

Some in Government need to remember that the State's success and prosperity is not just about business, but also about people and the general capability and creativity of all of society.

So true, and so unusual to hear it. Getting Ireland On-Line with fast affordable broadband is not just about today's needs. It is so much about e-qually access for all (see the Information Society's e-inclusion report) and even more importantly allowing the next generation to grow up in a "connected" culture and through that exposure equip them with the skill set necessary for the society in which they will live. Nice one Karlin.