‘Do not short-change an entire generation’

A failure to invest in the next generation’s education to equip Irish students to compete internationally would be bordering on “criminal” with the burden of payments being placed on them, according to the champion of Ireland’s digital future David Puttnam.

Speaking at the Cork Global Economic Forum Mr Puttnam said the repercussions of failing to invest are hard to imagine. Having just returned from a tour of south-east Asia, he said there is a generation of young Vietnamese and South Korean people who have been equipped to tip the global balance of trade away from the West and in Asia’s favour.

“It is hard to even imagine the sociopolitical and geopolitical repercussions of anything other than brilliantly equipped classrooms and an equally brilliant and well-equipped generation to educate them,” he said.