Sir, Mr Colum MacDonnell makes a number of interesting and valid points in his letter of January 9th.
For myself, I am regularly brought to recognise the depth of my own ignorance of the richness and complexity of continental European culture as a result of a lack of knowledge of continental languages. Europe is a single market of sorts but Ireland unfortunately is not integrated into the European cultural space to the extent that this exists. In particular, the focus and news values of our media are insular in the extreme, much more so than the media of the allegedly rabidly Europhobic British.
As to product and industrial design, we do, as Mr MacDonnell states, have a poor record, I would even say woeful and appalling. We are a nation as ignorant of the commercial importance and indeed the intrinsic merit of good design as we are of continental popular culture and tastes.
Mr MacDonnell refers to the White Paper on Science and Technology and the lack of reference therein to the importance of industrial design. Almost fair comment perhaps, although I would also say that it was a White Paper on science and technology and innovation. I would further point out that the White Paper's characterisation of the innovative firm is of a company that evinces a strong commitment to design and to engineering as well as to the appliance of science, the training of workers and continuous product improvement.
The history of State involvement in the promotion of design is not a happy one, particularly for the taxpayer. One cannot in a letter such as this rehearse in detail the story of Kilkenny Design Workshops. However, to my mind, part of that sad story involves, as I think Mr MacDonnell might agree, a failure on the part of the Irish business community to engage with the project of Kilkenny Design which, if my memory serves me, was under the aegis of the old CTT - which says something about what the original priority and focus was for the now defunct KDW.
Whatever about the proximate cause of the collapse of KDW, the underlying factors in my view include Irish industry's failure to hear the message being preached by the then CTT and therefore to avail of the resource the State provided when it brought to Ireland significant and sophisticated overseas design talent and established the Design Workshops.
Mr MacDonnell mentions the critical link between industrial design and science, technology and innovation. I agree. He asks where are all the industrial designers? But is it a question of supply, or is it a question of demand? I suspect the latter.
We do have a small, creative, design community in Ireland. On the basis of limited contact with that community I would guess that membership of that community must be a pretty lonely existence, much as I suspect is that of Mr MacDonnell in his endeavours to encourage Irish companies to develop products that are marketable in mainland Europe. - Yours, etc.,
Special Advisor to Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Commerce, Science and Technology, Department of Enterprise and Employment,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2.