Graduates urged to remain positive

TWO leading academics have urged graduates to remain positive in the face of the current economic crisis.

Both the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) president and chairman said yesterday that there is cause for optimism in Ireland at the beginning of 2011, despite all that has happened in the last three years.

Speaking at the beginning of a week of conferral ceremonies up to PhD level, WIT president Professor Kieran R Byrne said graduates face “uncertain futures” because of the state of the economy.

“But it can still be a future of your making,” he said, “and you can take a hand in your own destiny.”

Those who have completed this phase of their formal education now have a skill set and knowledge base that are flexible and inventive, Prof Byrne said. “You will be required more than ever to be innovative and inventive. Your intellectual energy, your curiosity of mind and your well-developed thinking will help you to seek and to see opportunities and prospects that are invisible to others.”

Everyone in Ireland needs to “reignite” our sense of civic responsibility and maximise our individual talents towards the common good, the WIT president said.

“Let us seek again our identity as a nation. Let us dig again to uncover those historic virtues we contributed, as few other nations have, to the advancement of civilisation. Most especially, let us rekindle our tradition of learnedness and intellectual creativity. These times too will pass. For now, we must review our aspirations and renew our ambitions.”

WIT chairman Redmond O’Donoghue said while rising unemployment and emigration, the banking collapse and the budget deficit are all realities, there is also “a great deal right about Ireland”.

He cited the country’s improved physical infrastructure as evidence that the boom was not completely blown.

“In a relatively short time, we have created the pieces of infrastructure that are vital to a progressive 21st century economy.”

Advances he mentioned include the inter-urban motorways linking Dublin with all the main regional cities; the Waterford Bypass; Shannon Tunnel; the O2; Grand Canal Theatre; Wexford Opera House; Aviva Stadium; Terminal Two at Dublin Airport; the Convention Centre Dublin; Thomond Park and many others.

“There is also cause for optimism arising from the investment there has been in our education infrastructure. Our workforce today is the best educated Ireland has ever had and among the best educated anywhere in the world.”

Exports will drive economic recovery, Mr O’Donoghue said, and — in time — sustainable growth. “Given this, it is worth reiterating that Ireland’s exports are doing very well. Our balance of payments will shortly be in surplus — something that can be said of very few economies in the Western world.