Dermot O'Connell, general manager, Dell Ireland
3rd February 2010
A digital development plan is crucial.
The place to start is connectivity and to make sure that segments of society can connect to the internet in a reasonably fast manner via rollout of nationwide broadband. We’ve done a great job in terms of education, we’ve a good reputation, our colleges are among the best in the world. But we’re not starting young enough in terms of getting primary and secondary students embedded with technology in the classroom.
In five years’ time the four-year-olds starting school in other developed countries are going to be coming out at 12 years of age fully conversant in technology and our kids aren’t going to be there – we need to fix that.
A costed national digital development plan is crucial. Not only do we need a costed plan, we need a plan that has specific actions against it. We’ve had various part-plans before, and some have been very, very successful, but I think a nationwide plan is what we need at this stage, one that’s costed and planned in a very deliberate and specific way with milestones that can be tracked.
I think it’s more important than ever that we get down to our digital plan, rather than wait for this recession to end and find everybody years ahead of us already.
Dermot O'Connell's biography
Dermot O’Connell serves as general manager and is responsible for Dell Ireland’s Global, Corporate and Public Sector Sales and Marketing operations, with a team based in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast. O’Connell is also a member of the Senior Management Team responsible for all aspects of Dell’s operations in Ireland.
O’Connell joined the company in 1993 and has held a number of senior positions both in the UK and Ireland. Most recently, he was Head of Solutions and Services for Dell Ireland where he was responsible for Dell’s Professional Services, Pre-Sales and Complex Project Delivery teams. In his time with the Ireland team, he has built and managed the Enterprise Pre-Sales team and spent time in Dell’s UK and Ireland Key Accounts and Enterprise Support teams.
A native of Co Kerry, O’Connell holds a bachelors degree in information systems from Trinity College Dublin.
