A passionate follower of GAA and Cork club, Nemo Rangers, Mr John Travers attended his first All-Ireland final in 1957. Louth defeated his native Cork that day, teaching him the danger of complacency: one slip of concentration and the ball can end up in the back of the net.

Forty years later as chief executive of Forfas, the policy and advisory board for industrial development, science and technology, Mr Travers is working to make sure the Government doesn't take its eye off the ball during this economic boom.

"We can't become complacent; things move extremely quickly internationally," says Mr Travers. "The boom period in Ireland is really very short in terms of Irish history. We have to ensure that we don't take that for granted."

Many countries are looking to challenge our position, says Mr Travers. Eastern Europe is likely to be a significant competitor and countries such as Britain and Luxembourg will continue to compete in certain areas, such as financial services.

Since the establishment of Forfas in 1994, Mr Travers has hosted scores of foreign delegations eager to learn the secret behind the Republic's economic success. He believes the answer is probably best illustrated by starting at the end.

"Producing a self-sustaining industrial policy is the goal," he says. "Over the past 20 years, we have tried to redefine industrial policy to encompass all aspects of public policy. We need to make sure investors want to continue to be here."

Skills, education, infrastructure, social partnership and research and development are the key drivers of economic growth and luring inward investment. It is the way the public sector and Government address these issues that is central to economic success, he says.

"We can't just focus on one issue, such as the skills' shortages or infrastructure; rather we need to have an integrated approach which addresses all these issues in a co-ordinated way. Forfas is operating across the full range of the public sector."

Mr Travers highlights a massive change of culture within the public sector over the past 20 years, which has driven this strategy forward. Government agencies and departments communicate and work together on projects much more frequently, he says.

Ideological change has also had a part to play. "The public sector has accepted the development of the enterprise state as the engine of growth for the economy. It generates taxation and allows the Government to redistribute wealth."

A greater sense of openness, characterised by the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act, and a willingness to develop the skills of public servants has helped to cement this approach. And nowadays public servants are encouraged to continue education, he says.

Something of a trailblazer in the educational arena, Mr Travers was one of the first public servants to study abroad under a scholarship for public servants. He studied economic development and business management at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, USA, and also holds a postgraduate qualification in town planning.

"The support for educational advancement within the public sector is far-sighted," says Mr Travers. He points to the huge sum that public servants will manage through the National Development Plan as an example.

After this period of study in the USA, Mr Travers worked as chief economics adviser in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and in senior management posts in the Department of the Taoiseach and IDA Ireland. But he has never lost his belief in the merits of education and is currently a member of the board of the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in UCD.

"With the growing importance of e-commerce, the need for investment in education has moved on in recent years," says Mr Travers. "I reckon about one-third of the current growth generated in the USA is because of e-business."

Skills constraints remain one of the main obstacles to successfully transferring the US model to the Republic, according to Mr Travers. A soon-to-be-published ESRI study will show there are six-and-a-half positions left unfilled for every 100 jobs in the economy. And many technology firms are finding it increasingly difficult to get staff. Last week the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, in association with Forfas, recommended adopting a partnership approach between Government, business and educational establishments to address the skills shortage in these areas. The report found many academic courses in business did not address adequately e-commerce or information technology.

"It's in the nature of large organisations that they are slow-moving. There is an openness to new ideas in academic life, but the time-factor is often too slow. We need to involve business leaders and development agencies and move the business links down from the top to the faculty level," says Mr Travers.

Comparing the e-business revolution to the discovery and adoption of electricity, Mr Travers believes it could provide the dual benefits of sustaining economic growth and combating the rising tide of inflation. "The e-business model is capable of generating non-inflationary growth because it increases productivity, it doesn't require a large capital cost and it gives a huge boost to competition," he says. He dismisses the view that rising inflation could lead to a bursting of the economic bubble. "I am quite optimistic about the future of the Irish economy. The boom-bust scenario is bound up with internal UK policies and is part of the debate relating to Britain's participation in the euro.

"There will be a natural slowdown in the future due to the structure of the population here and the fact that the number of people coming off the unemployment register will decline soon.

"The impetus to growth must come from increases in productivity and efficiency. The ideal rate of economic growth would be 5 per cent per year." Investment in research and development is another key area that should ensure that the Republic's economy does not founder, says Mr Travers. He pinpoints the £1.4 billion invested in research within the National Development Plan and a further £600 million through the Science Foundation Ireland as hugely important for development policy.

"We're now laying down the foundations for the kind of economic growth and industrial development which will emerge in Ireland from 2010 onwards. The intellectual potential will attract world-class researchers and students to Ireland."