I cringe when politicans talk about hi-speed broadband & a smart economy

Rabidlamb

You know they are only trouting out the phrases their PR gurus are feeding to them.
The technical prowess of most our elected representatives seems lacking.
They stumble through interviews trying to cover the fact they no nothing about the source material.
It gets my goat.

The only industries that FF know anything about are farming, pubs & construction.

PeterIanStaker

Very true, because they don't have a coherent plan for broadband, their not sure should they let private companies do it or should they be involved (not for the common good I can assure you, theyre probably thinking of a way to put a levy on it). But, having said that, your average TD has the technical prowess of a three year old child.

johnnyskeleton

Also, their idea of high tech jobs are call centres in Drogheda.

Nijmegen

I agree, though more than anything I dislike the way our smart economy doesn't seem to have a grand and detailed vision, a five year plan, objectives and means of achieving them.

No. Instead we're all going to get jobs in Google. Gwan. Figure the rest out.

RATM

The folly behind it all is that every other country in Europe is talking up ideas of the 'knowledge economy'. Its not unique to Ireland yet our politicians sell it to us as if they came up with the plan and are genuises for doing so.

Mal-Adjusted

Politicians will always waffle away anything that makes them sound smart or as if they know what they're doing, let us not forget all the "at the heart of Europe" nonsense that was so prevalent during the first referendum.

Herbal Deity

I don't understand how they purport to be promoting a "smart economy", and yet don't seem to be promoting anything to do with Computer Science, Engineering, Technology etc.

Manach

No promotion because IT people don't have a well funded PR lobby group like certain sections of society. Besides, the average IT person does not have a poster-boy/girl draw- we need more appeal

Rebelheart

I feel really strongly about the entire broadband issue. The number of places across Ireland which still do no have broadband is, quite simply, unforgivable.

But I feel I'm hitting my head against a brick wall when I try to explain to older people the importance of broadband. Even businesspeople are, in general, not anywhere near full appreciation of how broadband could change their company's and town's commercial success and reputation.

It's all a very depressing picture. Like so many GAA clubs across Ireland, urban chambers of commerce need younger tech-savvy people running them. Now. Now.

MysticalRain

The "smart economy" crap is a classic case of politicians pretending to do something about a problem without actually solving it. It's little more than a way to make us feel better after losing our manufacturing base and seeing the construction industry implode. At the end of the day there will only be a couple of hundred thousand people involved in the smart economy at most. The strategy does little to help the other 1.8 million people in the workforce or most of the 450,000 people currently on the dole for that matter.

If those ignorant gombeens in FF had really wanted to create a smart economy, they should have rolled out a decent broadband infrastructure 10 years ago, reformed our education system by placing greater emphasis on technology and business instead of subjects like religion and Irish, and used the tax breaks they gave to the construction industry for high-tech firms instead. It's a bit late talking about a smart economy now that the horse has bolted.