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Maurice Mortell
"There has to be a mindshift, I think, in where people were in terms of what was delivering value for the Irish economy. Foreign direct investment has stood us great and continues to be great. The IDA does a fabulous job in bringing in great opportunities to the country." more...
Maurice Mortell, CEO, Data Electronics
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Graham Byrne
"Richie Baneham’s success with Avatar is a great example of how Irish talent can be exported globally. One of the issues is how we can harness these opportunities for Ireland. The top 10 roles that exist now didn’t exist 10 years ago. We have to accept that the world has changed, at a pace not..." more...
Graham Byrne, head of Ireland and Scotland businesses, Promethean
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Martin Murphy
"The vision that I have for Ireland is that of a services centre for the global economy. We are a gateway into Europe and that’s a strength we have to play to. We are one of the world’s largest exporters currently and Ireland to date exports 5pc of all of the exports globally." more...
Martin Murphy, managing director, HP Ireland
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Jim O'Hara
"If you look at the companies involved in digital media and the really, really exciting things they are doing, it’s amazing. I would ask those folks what is it about Ireland that helped them do more of that stuff and what is it about Ireland that got in their way, and then fix that stuff." more...
Jim O'Hara, general manager, Intel Ireland
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Paul Rellis
"I think some of the key skills that need to be developed are not just the maths and science skills that hog a lot of the limelight – I think they are really important – but the skills around languages, around cultural appreciation, around how to build trust, around collaboration. All of those..." more...
Paul Rellis, general manager, Microsoft Ireland
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Mark Kellett
"Right now we seem to be lacking in a focus at Governmental level. We talk about a smart economy but we haven’t actually yet translated that into action. When we talk about job creation, what sectors will we be strong in?" more...
Mark Kellett, CEO, Magnet Networks
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Kim Majerus
"Innovation comes from several different sources. It’s not just the business that is brought in from multinationals but also the local economy that can drive innovation outward. It’s all about driving and changing the way Ireland is viewed on the innovation scale." more...
Kim Majerus, managing director, Cisco Ireland
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Dermot O’Connell
"Indigenous companies making use of multinationals will be key, I believe, but this hasn’t really happened yet to a great extent. A lot of the multinationals think of our headquarters as being outside a country and that’s where our focus and effort in terms of communication and strategy should go." more...
Dermot O’Connell, general manager, Dell Ireland
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Gerry Fahy
"I think we’ve got some critical decisions to make as a country over the next short while. A lot of them are around the regulatory field, because if the regulatory field enables innovation investment rather than disables or hampers we would have a very different outcome." more...
Gerry Fahy, director of strategy, Vodafone Ireland
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Graham Sutherland
"The Business of Science & Technology Programme was launched by BT this year because we believe that scientific innovation on its own is tremendous but it is not enough. There should be equal focus on the business application of the ideas generated, and support to help them become commercial..." more...
Graham Sutherland, chief executive, BT Ireland
INTERVIEWS AND ANALYSIS
 | 270,000 new jobs predicted by 2016 – TaoiseachBased on the €40bn investments announced by the Irish Government, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland are targeting more than 270,000 direct and indirect jobs up to 2016. |
 | Green tech is a big winner in 2016 infrastructure planGreen tech and energy efficiency will be a major focus of the Government’s Infrastructure Priorities Programme to 2016 to make Ireland a leader in the deployment of renewable energy. |
 | Private sector to build Ireland’s next digital infrastructureOutlining Ireland’s infrastructure priorities until 2016, the Government said the main investment in fibre-optic networks will be via the private sector. |
 | Future hinges on Ireland reforming educationA top-down investment in digital education, allied with total systemic reform, is urgently needed. |
 | Innovation fund to attract world’s top venture capitalistsInnovation Fund Ireland – a major €500m venture capital fund created by the Irish Government – has been launched in New York by Taoiseach Brian Cowen and will attract venture capitalists to Irish shores. |
DIGITAL REALITIES
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Finland makes broadband a legal right, shouldn’t Ireland?Finland might have the highest alcohol prices in Europe (Ireland is second highest) but at least it has its priorities straight when it comes to the digital economy. |
WORLD VIEW
 | UK plans to get every adult online by 2015The UK Government’s new digital champion Martha Lane Fox has written a manifesto aiming to get the 10 million Britons who have never used the internet to be online by 2015. |
 | Australia sets the standard for next-generation broadband rolloutThe news that Australia is to invest close to US$10bn in a pan-Australian fibre-optic network that will transform its country socially and economically for the decades ahead should set an example for economies in Europe. |
 | US govt plans to double wireless spectrum and create jobsUS President Barack Obama’s administration is planning to double the amount of wireless spectrum available across America in a move that will grow bandwidth and create thousands of new jobs. |
 | Superfast broadband will add stg£18bn to UK economyJeremy Hunt, the new culture secretary for the UK, has identified next-generation broadband as integral to adding stg£18bn to GDP to the UK economy and creating anything between 60,000 to 600,000 new jobs. |
 | EU Digital Agenda plans 30Mbps broadband for all citizensEuropean Commissioner Neelie Kroes has outlined her vision of a single market to allow Europeans to prosper from the digital era . |
 | EU nations to present their digital plans for peer reviewAs part of the European Commission’s Digital Agenda to be unveiled in the coming weeks, all 27 member states will take part in an ongoing peer review of their digital strategies. |
| Digital Britain Bill to get second readingThe Digital Britain Bill is to get a second reading in Parliament and several MPs have called for its implementation to be delayed until after the UK elections. |
 | 200,000 respond to Google’s fibre broadband experimentGoogle’s plans to deploy 1Gbps fibre to the home in select US communities has been met with some 200,000 responses from interested individuals. |
 | UK PM joins with Berners-Lee to create ‘radical’ digital futureUK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has unveiled plans for a "digital future of Britain" that will result in 250,000 new jobs and has recruited the creator of the worldwide web Tim Berners-Lee to create a stg£30m Institute of Web Science. |
 | Major US broadband policy plan to be revealedRegulators in the US are set to roll out an ambitious broadband policy plan that will see the average American experience increases in speeds up to 25 times faster than what they currently experience. |
 | Promethean to roll out 4,550 whiteboards in Spanish schoolsInteractive learning player Promethean has won a major Spanish tender to provide 4,550 of its ActivBoard+2 interactive whiteboards plus software to 1,900 schools in the Spanish region of Andalucia. . |
 | Intel leads venture and graduate push in USIntel is to drive a US$3.5-billion venture capital initiative to grow US industries in a move that will also increase jobs that will be available to college graduates. |
 | Ireland must learn to commercialise its researchIreland, like Germany, must do more than just create clever technologies to succeed commercially. |
 | Europe’s €700bn ICT industry calls on govts to get digitalBroadband-based innovation has the potential to create up to 1 million jobs and generate economic activity worth €849 billion, groups representing Europe’s ICT industry have told European governments. |
 | BT calls on rivals to open up fibre ductingIn the UK, BT has called on fellow telecoms operators to open their telecoms infrastructure and fibre ducting and up investment in the area. |
 | UK Tories: 100Mbps broadband by 2017The UK Conservative Party has unveiled a broadband plan to provide 100Mbps to most UK homes by 2017. |
 | Berners-Lee weaves semantic web for UK govtGovernment worldwide holds vast quantities of data. What is being done with non-personal data that is potentially useful? |
 | Obama’s IT guru urges inclusion of IT in stimulus plansGovernments must move swiftly to include more IT and ICT investments in their economic stimulus plans. |
