The Government hopes to create tens of thousands of hi-tech, 'green' jobs - but some observers are wondering whether we have the capability or the cash to achieve it, writes LAURA SLATTERY
"SORRY IT'S all a bit technical," Eamon Ryan apologises, as he wraps up a Government media briefing on its grand "green tech" plan to create 30,000 jobs via such innovative delights as Optical Burst Packet Switching. "But it's also real," he adds. "And it will work."
The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is convinced that Ireland can do a "digital leapfrog" over our economic rivals and make Ireland a "test bed location" for green technologies. It will begin its task by partnering with InTune Networks to build the Exemplar "smart network" that promises dependable, instantaneous connectivity and much more besides.
But can the so-called smart economy really generate the tens of thousands of jobs that the Government hopes will drag us out of our economic hole?
With many household users and businesses still grappling with the frustrations of broadband, there was plenty of "walk before you can run" scepticism emanating from the part of the communications market that is not Eircom, while Fine Gael communications spokesman Simon Coveney lauded the "exciting ideas" but bemoaned the next round of working groups that they would inevitably spawn.
Elsewhere in the industry, however, there were mentions of Government "bravery", while at InTune Technologies, co-founder John Dunne was in no doubt about the significance of the Government's announcement.
"This is how companies like Google are created," he says.
For Dunne, the point about Exemplar is not that end users get faster, better internet connections, but that the network will solve a "global, economic and technical problem" - permanently de-clogging network bottlenecks through patented tuneable lasers.
"If the problem isn't global, you don't get the multiplier effect from exports. If it's just economic, it can be copied by other countries and if it's technical but not economic, it has no value," he explains. Solving problems that are all three of these things is rare.
But InTune had never really planned to use its technology in Ireland in this way. That the Government has put its hands up and decided it wants to be the early adopters for once seems to have surprised the company as much as anyone: Ireland "normally waits for technology to be rolled out somewhere before touching it". If it acts now, Ireland will have a "two to three year lead time" on other countries, he says. A good thing too: "Ireland can't afford to be a follower anymore."
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