Madam, – Britain’s prime minister Gordon Brown hopes his country can spend its way out of the present economic recession. President-elect Barack Obama has adopted the same approach in the US. Even the EU is talking about “a planned economic stimulus programme”.
The Irish Government has taken a different response in trying to tackle the challenge of economic recession. Our Government has raised taxes and introduced harsh cutbacks in a bid to control a soaring budget deficit. The wrong approach, in my opinion.
What our economy needs right now is a planned economic stimulus programme and education is the key to that stimulus. Finland did this when it faced a severe banking crisis and had an unemployment rate of 18 per cent in 1994. Yet within 10 years the country had transformed itself from a resource-intensive economy into a knowledge-based one, through investing in education. World Bank reports have suggested that the Finnish experience of the 1990s is an example of how a country can turn a crisis into an opportunity and how knowledge can become the driving force of economic growth and transformation. Ireland can do the same by investing in education.
During the boom years the Irish economy was known internationally as the Celtic Tiger, but now, as the economic downturn takes hold, the German Institute for Economic Research has suggested that unless there is a drastic increase in funding for education and research, Ireland will face an innovation emergency within a decade. The report also suggests that, despite Ireland’s economic success, poor choices made in critical innovation-influential sectors mean the country is still in a catch-up development stage.
It was a similar picture in South Korea in the 1970s, but when the boom came the Koreans invested in education. We did not – to the extent we should have done – when we had the money. But we are not too late; we can use this economic crisis as an opportunity to invest in education and it can become the driving force of economic growth and transformation as it was in Finland.
The MD of Microsoft Ireland, Paul Rellis, says: “From a social standpoint, education remains the single most critical factor for our future success. We have a young population which is an amazing resource and something our partners in Europe envy. If we want to create an innovation economy then we need to take a serious look at our approach to education.”
Somebody once said it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Let our investment in education be the candle to light our future. After all there are enough people cursing the darkness. – Yours, etc,