Top US columnist thinks we’re the biz, so why don’t we talk to him?

WHAT is it about us Irish that makes it so hard for us to take a compliment? In recent weeks the New York Times has carried two glowing tributes to Ireland’s economic success by its leading columnist, Thomas L Friedman.

His first column trumpeted the fact that Ireland, once the basket case of Europe, is now the second wealthiest European country after Luxembourg. In the second piece, Friedman called on the rest of Europe, particularly ailing France and Germany, to follow the Irish economic model.

Friedman cited seven main factors in Ireland's sustained economic success our well-educated population, our open and competitive economy, our low corporate tax rates, our social partnership model, our focus on attracting leading global firms, and a tight reign on public finances.

He also included the fact we speak English and that we have enjoyed an element of luck.

Friedman's New York Times column is one of the most popular in the US. In 2002 he won his third Pulitzer Prize and he is also author of a number of books on international issues, the most recent of which, The World is Flat, deals with the challenges presented by globalisation.

Inevitably, therefore, his pieces about Ireland created a small bit of a stir not only in the US but also in some international media and on internet blogs.

His views subsequently featured in the International Herald Tribune and one of the main English language dailies in Manila used the Friedman piece on Ireland as a hook to editorialise about how the Philippines should emulate our policies to exploit their similar positioning in the Asian economy.

Is it hardly surprising, therefore, that the IDA was handing out copies of Friedman's columns at the launch of their annual report last week? Predictably, however, the media reaction here in Ireland to a ringing endorsement from the New York Times' top columnist was mixed, to say the least.

It was interesting last week to watch the considerable attention given to the negative views of former US congressman Bruce Morrison on recent changes to our work permits system compared to the relatively little attention given to Friedman's positive assessment of the last decade or two of Ireland's economic and enterprise policy.

Morrison's claim to fame here arises from the visa bearing his name, which was availed of by so many Irish emigrants to the US in the 1980s.

Now, two decades later, Morrison's impact in America is limited, so in recent weeks he has been very available for the large number of newspapers and radio programmes here who wanted to hear his views on our Government's policies.

By comparison there was only a slow trickle of coverage for what Friedman had to say and much of this had a bitter or cynical twist to it.

Some newspapers did report the Friedman column as a news story in its own right, but many commentators took his endorsement as a launch pad for pieces bemoaning Ireland's problems rather than an opportunity to explore the basis for our continuing economic success.

About half of those pieces repeated the old claim that while Ireland may be booming now, the 'inevitable' global recession/rise in oil prices/housing market collapse means economic doom and gloom is just around the corner for Ireland.

The other half argued along the lines, "well even if we are doing well economically then, in reality, we are still making a mess of things "

I waited all week for Friedman to pop up on some TV or radio programme here to be asked to discuss his piece, but either he wasn't available or, unlike Morrison's views, programme editors felt Friedman's were not significant.

Was it that the columnist's upbeat assessment didn't chime with the negative tone which, even in these summer months, must dominate our current affairs programmes?

The impact of the statistics surrounding our success story, admittedly, have been diminished by the fact that Government ministers have taken to rattling them off in defence against media or opposition attack but they are significant nonetheless.

The most significant is that almost three-quarters of a million more people are at work now than there were in the mid 1980s. Unemployment, which was then more than 15%, was registered last week at 4.2%.

Why is it that (apart from the business pages) there is seldom media coverage about industrial and enterprise policy in this country these days?

In the mid-1980s the newspapers were dominated by the unemployment crisis; there were whole Late Late Shows about the need to create an enterprise society and full history books were written about how Ireland had wasted its independence in economic failure.

NOW, in 2005, there are still some very significant developments taking place in the areas of industrial, enterprise and education policy and they deserve more attention. As Friedman emphasised, even though Ireland has enjoyed 15 years of incredible economic success, we are not sitting on our laurels.

We are already planning and implementing the next leap up the value chain. Forfás recently revamped enterprise policy in order to ensure Ireland remains 'ahead of the curve'.

This policy is grounded on three central tenets firstly, that globalisation is now inevitable and is not to be bemoaned, but to be exploited; secondly, that high value service industries are our future and, thirdly, that substantial and strategic investment in research and development is the key to sustaining and improving on our economic growth.

Friedman, like many other international and national commentators before him, identified the hundreds of millions of euro currently being pumped by the exchequer into research programmes linking industry and third-level education institutions as particularly far-sighted.

The Irish economic miracle, and the fact that we are still adapting our economic and enterprise policy, has given rise to a new type of 'Celtic Tiger tourism'.

Our economy is the main attraction for delegations of business people and government officials from eastern Europe and other places seeking to find out the secret of our success.

So impressed was a recent 70-strong delegation from the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle they have asked the chief executive of Forfás, the Enterprise and Employment Minister, Micheál Martin, and the Dublin chamber of commerce to make return visits to Seattle this autumn to talk to a wider audience about succeeding in a globalised economy.

It is not being partisan to ask that at least some space and time be given over to celebrate our success story and to explore how it has come to pass and can be sustained.

The key policies which have given rise to our economic miracle have been supported by almost all the main political parties since the early 1980s, and all can rightly claim some credit for that success.

Neither is it being smug.

Yes, this country still has many problems, and our Government could be more competent at managing many things, but surely we can take a moment to be gracious and to appreciate the compliment when a significant foreign commentator reminds us that we have achieved much.