Sir, – I wish to offer a few thoughts about the role of think tanks in the context of the article by Tom Boland, Ray Griffin and Kieran Keohane ("Irish think tanks don't think any more", Opinion & Analysis, November 2nd).
It is worth recalling that the 2008 financial crisis was the fourth time since independence that Ireland looked into the abyss of economic desolation.
This suggests that our development model is flawed. Although a recovery appears now to be under way, it is clear that we have serious issues – housing, healthcare and children, for example – which will remain as legacy social deficits for many years to come. Indeed it is the case that legacy issues in health from the mid-1980s crisis have compounded the difficulties on this occasion.
We need to start imagining other possibilities for our economy and society. If we drift back to business as usual we run the risk of history repeating itself for the fifth time.
Think tanks are in the business of ideas. In the case of Tasc, for instance, we try to analyse the causes of deep-rooted problems and give policymakers ideas for addressing them. The publication of Cherishing All Equally: Economic Inequality in Ireland earlier this year is a case in point. Moreover, it is focused on Irish conditions.
Policymakers do not have to accept the ideas emanating from Tasc or any other think tank, but it surely gives them options and an impetus for evidence-based policymaking.
Apart from the social deficits identified above, Ireland is facing future challenges including “Brexit”, the future of the European integration project, transitioning to a low-carbon economy, an ageing demographic profile and an industrial policy based on low corporate taxes to attract foreign direct investment that is now being challenged.
We need new ideas to grapple with these challenges. As Keynes remarked, ideas are dangerous for good or evil. Still we would be in a bad place without ideas and the institutions capable of generating them. – Yours, etc,
DAVID BEGG, MA, PhD
Director,
Tasc,
Castleriver House,
Parliament Street,
Dublin 2