Brian Cowen and company seem quite enamored with the term ’smart economy’ these days, chalking everything from Máire Geoghegan-Quinn’s European Commission portfolio to more jobs in the bookie’s up to the government’s dedication to all sorts of high-tech wizardry. In fact, if you were to ask a member of the government how they plan to bring Ireland’s economy back up from its knees in the coming years, you’re virtually guaranteed to hear the phrase smart economy along with its fellow buzz-term ‘green economy’ firmly lodged in their first sentence. This should be heartening to hear; a focus on high-tech, export oriented industries promises much more stable, long-term growth prospects for the coming decade than the national property bubble that we relied upon for the current one. Unfortunately, while our cabinet members have certainly learnt how to say the words smart economy, I don’t think any of them seem to have realised what they actually mean.
You might expect a government with such an attachment to the notion of Ireland being a high-tech hub to have some sort of record of positioning the country as an international leader in the field over the past decade. The reality as it turns out, is quite the opposite. It’s not just that we’re not at the top of the international league tables on this, we’re actually, in a word, shit.
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