‘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.

Mr Puttnam said his own generation has blown opportunities and piled the cost of their failings onto their children.

“To settle for anything less is without doubt to risk short-changing an entire generation. After all, having raided their pensions and depleted their environment and undermined their confidence in ever finding a worthwhile job, we cannot possibly now allow them to drift into becoming second-class citizens through our inability to invest in their future. Should we fail to exercise sufficient imagination and self-sacrifice to offer them the same opportunities that we enjoyed, and to a horrifying extent I’m afraid squandered, that to my mind would border on criminality,” he said.

According to Mr Puttnam the days of an average education guaranteeing an average outcome are gone, and the only way to succeed in a connected world is by being outstanding.

“Everyone needs to find their own extra, that special something that they need to find to make themselves stand out in whatever field of employment they happen to find themselves. Today average is definitely over because the best jobs already require people to have a better education and more of it and to ensure that they are well above average,” he said.

Mr Puttnam said that the time had come for Ireland to set aside the tribal politics that still blight the landscape.

“I was enormously impressed by a leader in the Irish Examiner on 7 Oct and I quote ‘it’s time for a change in the tempo of public affairs, it’s time to expect more of ourselves and of our politicians because as one indicator after another has shown the present game is up’. Most of the more thoughtful commentators I read seem to be saying something similar,” he said.

He said that two biggest questions facing Ireland were how the country can deal with a decline in the power of the US, and rebuilding trust and confidence in both ourselves and business partners.

He added that today was a good day to start facing these challenges.