Cutbacks must not be allowed sink digital district

We need decisive political leadership to prevent the digital district becoming an empty symbol for dressing up political speeches LAST year, the Taoiseach and the Government demonstrated that in one important area they had true vision. They committed to one of the most far-reaching and inspirational projects of the past 15 years: the digital district planned for that semi-blighted yet energetic inner-city area, the Liberties.

In front of US President Bill Clinton, Mr Ahern pledged his backing and financial support for an exciting plan to turn the zone into a digital arts and business centre. It would entail renovating one of the most deserving and long-suffering neighbourhoods, capitalising on Irish strengths in new media and the arts. It would meld narrative, drama and visual creativity with the State's emergent, fresh entrepreneurial sparks in e-commerce, Internet and wireless technologies.

Not since the Haughey era had such a project, with such a long-term and creative objective so well-suited to Irish talents, been introduced. Say what you will about the man, Mr Haughey had, along with his flaws, a piercing insight into the kind of large-scale project that the country could make its own in a financially and creatively productive way. Think of the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), or the rejuvenation of Temple Bar (how impossible now to believe it was once destined to be a bus depot!).

Generally, I am no fan of Mr Haughey's, but in national terms he had an admirable appreciation of the role of risk-taking and the need - especially at a time of economic gloom - to courageously choose the broad canvas for the big picture, rather than the charming but ultimately marginal miniature. Indeed - as the technology and microchip industries know very well - it is precisely in times of economic uncertainty that one must develop resources and infrastructure, and commit to a future that will come and give you one nanosecond in which to show you have prepared in advance for it.

The Republic is at just such a point, at which small gestures and tidy little sums towards boutique projects will not do. This crucial truth does not seem to have sunk into the collective minds in the Department of Finance, nor in that of its leader, who has made many positive, yet any business person would argue obvious, movements towards invigorating the economy. But the blunt facts are that all the relaxed restrictions on share-option schemes or Government-backed personal savings plans will not forge the real economic future.

For all our self-congratulation over the success of Riverdance, a handful of high-profile, indigenous Irish software companies and our position as the leading exporter of packaged software in the world, we are truly hovering on the edge of a grey, petty, materialistic national sensibility lamented so viciously by the poet William Butler Yeats earlier this century. Truly, some Government departments and a few other organisations seem intent on fumbling in the greasy till and adding the halfpence to the pence, as Yeats said in despair at a nation that had turned its back on funding a gallery for Hugh Lane's fabulous, artistically nourishing collection of pictures.

The value of brave projects such as the IFSC, Temple Bar or the digital district does not lie in trimming back costs this year, squeezing out an extra ounce of supposed value by cutting corners, or demanding a payback in one or three or five years. Their real scope lies in their ability to accrete possibility - to draw new vigour and vision in, to have untold and immeasurable knock-on effects in all areas of social and economic life, to raise the State's profile on a number of fronts, and to assemble, from the ground up, an economic tomorrow for those entering school or university today.

The IFSC, for example, built a financial foundation upon which the State could draw in leading companies and begin to support its own entrepreneurial talents. The IFSC's success meant growing rings of support were available for the business community, not least by attracting the international institutions that could create a comfortable environment for multinational investment. Whether you personally care to visit the pubs there or not, Temple Bar has given homes and profile to arts organisations that were practically invisible and sorely underfunded, introduced some of the only exciting new architecture to the city, and become a top destination on every tourist's itinerary.

To be fair, the post-Haughey governments have had different priorities. On the political front, the Northern peace process took massive dedication and working years, and on the economic side, several large and necessary infrastructure ventures have absorbed State energies.

But now it is the time again for the large canvas and a fruitful legacy. If the visionless, grey men and women win out and reduce funding for serious and essential pump-priming projects - those that have the scope to invigorate creativity, inspire entrepreneurialism, and build an economic future for a nation that already has funded real research and development with short-sighted stinginess - then they condemn the country to eternal third- or fourth-class status.

We have top-class indigenous companies here (as a nation, we come fourth globally in the number of Nasdaq-listed companies) and many start-ups that have the potential to compete on the world's stage. We need to start thinking in terms of networking, productive environments, national creative strengths, jump-starting innovation by bringing together complementary companies, organisations and minds. Current developments are not good enough - every nation in the world is building yet another faceless industrial park where companies are lumped together in grand isolation.

With the digital district, the Republic has the opportunity to do something wonderfully new, different, well-suited to our technical, business and artistic strengths, and interwoven with a fantastic vision of inner-city renewal. The chance is there to start creating the vital web of connections that has always fuelled Silicon Valley. But the digital district is adrift, threatened with cutbacks and lacks a minister to spearhead it (the Taoiseach has a million obligations - surely this is the ideal project for the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, as it involves enterprise, trade, employment and the technology sector she has courted so well).

The Government needs to drive this project forward, aggressively and with brio, and not leave it to bounce around between departments as Ministers and civil servants bicker. The last thing we need is for the digital district to become an empty symbol for dressing up political speeches. Give us vision, Taoiseach and Tanaiste, and give it to us now.

klillington@irish-times.ie