We do have reason to be a little optimistic
Essentially the 180 business people with Irish roots who attended from around the world not just the US, or Britain, had much to say that was positive.
It was amazing how matter of fact visitors from the US were about our banking crisis. They saw it as a problem to be dealt with and not a crisis that is about to rob ordinary people of their futures.
The focus was on the challenges ahead, the banks got little air time over the two days.
We were not alone in that and we should get on with putting a solution in place as other countries have done was the message.
US Ambassador Dan Rooney and Denis Swanson from Fox TV said it was time to look forward and not get bogged down by the local obsession engulfing the NAMA process.
Get on with solving it was the message.
Closer to the bone was the pretty searing attack by Craig Barrett, the former chairman and chief executive of Intel, which employs thousands of people in Ireland.
In pretty blunt terms he told those at the forum we faced far bigger issues in this country than the problems thrown up the banks.
He lambasted our education system and the failure to deliver broadband to the country. Some who attended that session said Barrett was very blunt on thoseissues. Was it a veiled hint that Intel might also be considering puling out of Ireland?
Foreign Affairs Minister, Micheál Martin thought that suggestion absurd, but do not forget that Intel mothballed its last major Intel project in Kildare effectively leaving its Irish operations with second generation technology.
And by the way where is Dell now? The threat of Intel going, no matter how remote, cannot be ruled out.
Another source who works with a major software group in Ireland and who is Irish, backed Barrett’s point.
In his view the standard of degrees here relative to those being achieved in the US and elsewhere at the higher level simply do not compare.
The bluntness of the analysis suggests we have mountains to climb in that regard and that we will ignore such challenges at our peril
It ought to be borne in mind that Professor Michael Murphy, president of UCC, made a similar point about the standards in our universities some months ago, so the criticism is coming from within as well as without.
When someone of Barrett’s caliber raises the issue, bearing in mind he had dedicated himself to boosting education standards in various countries since he quit Intel, then it is really a wake up call.
The recent Economist report into its ranking of world economies for 2008 highlighted that weakness, also saying Ireland was way outside the top rankings.
It also produced some very positive statistics about where we stood internationally, but many of those findings are being eroded by the continuing decline in our economic well being.
Already our competitiveness ranking of 19th in the world at the end of 2008 has been slashed to 24th or 25th in a recent international report.
And the message from last weekend’s forum is that we have to come back to reality and realise the Celtic Tiger left us some years ago.
It is not all gloom and doom though.
Delegates insisted this economy has huge potential if properly handled.
But at the back of all the flattery from those present was the underlying assumption that next December’s budget will be very tough and that hard, courageous decisions are needed in the period ahead.
