As others see us - maybe it's not so bad after all

NET RESULTS:There is much that is right in Ireland despite all the doom and gloom and dire predictions

A PIECE in the Guardian on the weekend about Ireland, technology and green tech gave a fascinating perspective on how others see us – and about why we are not hearing the same message very clearly at home.

In a business section story headlined Emerald Isle Plots Green Revolution, the writer Larry Elliot notes that while Labour and Conservatives in the UK continue to dither over spending cuts, the Irish Government has already made four needed interventions.

“Even better news is that Ireland appears quite keen to act as Europe’s guinea pig for the green new deal concept and is likely to reap a considerable dividend as a result. While the short-term outlook for Ireland is dire, the longer-term picture is much rosier.”

While we have several weaknesses, such as our exposure to oil and gas energy markets and the brutal evidence that our higher-cost economy is proving less attractive to low-cost manufacturers like Dell, these are “outweighed by considerable strengths”.

These include the fact that our exports have remained fairly strong despite the battering in our own and the wider global economy, he says.

“Overseas sales are down, but not by nearly as much as in other export-led economies such as Germany and Japan. Although it has recently experienced the downside of footloose global capitalism, the Celtic Tiger period of the 1990s provided Ireland with a core of hi-tech expertise in sectors such as IT, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.”

This expertise, he notes, could be harnessed towards a “green dividend” – green manufacturing and green energy via green technology, all culminating in an opportunity for Ireland to remake itself as a global expert and leader in this rapidly expanding area.

In our post-election frustration in which the national self-image has been unrelentingly grim, such a view is startling. There’s an inclination to wonder how well an outsider understands the “real” situation here, whether those four interventions are remotely sufficient, whether the green tech agenda is too pie in the sky.

But then, I think back to how, over the past decade and a half, I have seen an Irish-based technology sector and the Irish technology and RD environment that has gradually developed here, achieve a global recognition that is consistently dismissed by people within the country.

Live here long enough and it becomes harder and harder to see clearly, without the veneer of negativity that eventually is overlaid on to so many endeavours.

Of course, this is a nation famed for its level of begrudgery and pessimism is begrudgery’s best friend. We relentlessly dismiss our capabilities and we tend always to want to see the downside, it seems. There are those who, ringing in to Liveline or talking on the chattering-class weekend review shows, are downright jubilant that we have at last reached the economic meltdown they have longed for.

Much of this is expressed through our political system, where rather than looking forward, working together towards common projects and resolution and offering ideas, politicians and their parties are happier bashing each other over who is at fault for what is, after all, a massive global downturn.

Granted, there are specific Irish elements that make the situation here dire in its own singular way, but blaming the Government solely for a property market crash in which so many rushed to develop a little champagne property portfolio on a beer income or took out colossal mortgages is extraordinary. The Opposition wasn’t talking about restraint in this area, as I recall, either.

We also love to talk about how our politicians should be inspired by US president Barack Obama, but maybe we’d all do better considering his gentle but firm chastisement of the people, too, in his inaugural address. We, he noted, had a hand in getting ourselves into this mess, a point that is also true here and hasn’t really sunk into the collective conscience.

Nor has his message that we, working together, looking forward and using intelligence coupled with recognised strengths in science and technology, can rebuild and create a fresh future.

That, too, is true of Ireland.

We have a very unique set of advantages that many of our competitor countries outside of the US do not – starting with that famed close relationship to the US and several successive administrations. We have a critical base of science and technology companies. We are small enough to move fast, when there’s consensus.

Consensus – there’s the rub. Sometimes, in the past, it has happened serendipitously, creating an accidental empire of tech expertise and skills in a very small country.

That no longer is going to be good enough, not least because it is far too risky to just hope things come together and work out. We need a mindshift towards imaging what can be rather than engaging in endless I-told-you-sos.

We also need to recognise the key role our technology and science sectors are going to play in our collective economic health and future, which means clear leadership and commitment to this sector from the Government as well. And maybe sometimes seeing ourselves as others see us, in a positive rather than negative light.

klillington@irishtimes.com

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