Ministers need to do more than applaud a website

Last week, the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, and the German ambassador to Ireland welcomed the launch of a new website that promotes German in Ireland.

This is a laudable initiative by the German embassy and the Goethe Institute but our Government should be doing more, way more.

The day after this site (www.germanconnects.ie) was launched, the Taoiseach hosted a press conference where a myriad of initiatives were announced in the pursuit of job creation.

This too is welcome but a course in joining the dots might be a useful addition at the next Cabinet meeting. Driving an Irish jobs agenda should be hot-wired into a strategy designed to make Germany an enormous market for Irish job hunters.

Doing this requires structural changes in our school system. I’ve never quite figured out why French and Spanish are such popular courses in Ireland relative to German. Maybe it is a Catholic thing or the fact that understanding French women is always a worthwhile pursuit but it cannot be an economic point.

Spain, even in its best days, has never been a haven of advanced economic activity given its high reliance on tourism and agriculture. France, you’ll notice, has never been a major force in direct investment in Ireland and recent developments there suggest its policymakers are far from interested in economic activity outside the home market.

This brings us to Germany. That would be Europe’s leading economy, packed with world market facing exporters, a strong domestic economy and close to full employment. That would be a place that sits inside the supposed single European market of which Ireland is a part. That too would be within an hour or two’s flight from any Irish airport.

Germany has two other attributes that make it a no-brainer for a huge policy change in Ireland; (1) it has a sophisticated apprenticeship system that welcome school leavers intent on a career in industry, and; (2) its population faces gigantic demographic challenges. It has too few young people to sustain long-term economic growth.

We have truckloads of young people in need of work. Their numbers are large in an Irish context where unemployment rates are about 14%. Yet, they are tiny numbers in Germany where 25 million people are at work. Less than 2 million people are at work in Ireland so, proportionately, our employment “crisis” is a small number in Germany.

What should be done? With Ireland holding the EU presidency until the end of June, we have about 17 weeks to sort this out. At the next Cabinet why not decide to do this; (1) direct the Minister for Education to insist on German language classes in primary schools and the elevation of German to the No 1 language at secondary level; (2) ask Frau Merkel to share a press conference where the Irish and German business confederations launch a strategic linkage between apprentices in both countries; (3) establish a direct link between Fás and its German equivalent; (4) invite HR heads from the 100 largest Gerrman companies to Ireland for an all-paid weekend to meet educators and companies in Ireland who can provide a bridge over which young Irish can cross between both countries.

This should be started soon but is, by definition, a long-term strategic play. Turning our education and training infrastructure around to engage constructively with Germany will take years.

Nonetheless, the German demographic challenge will continue and get worse for decades to come. Looking around Europe I’d also bet Germany will remain the strongest economy in Europe over the next 20 years. That’s two good reasons why Irish ministers should do more than applaud the launch of a website.