Research project - Planning for jobs growth

IT is a pity that on the very day that two of the country’s universities announced a research partnership with the possibility of creating 300 companies and thousands of jobs that Eircom had to announce that it was abandoning its multi-million euro high-speed broadband plans.

The partnership will be styled the Innovation Academy and will cost €650 million over 10 years. These are the kind of developments that may lead us out of the morass we are in but, as always, there is a caveat.

Just as the creation of centres of excellence in health had an impact on smaller hospitals it would be a pity if this development had a negative impact on other universities. The objective must be to sustain that which is viable and expand that with unrealised potential.

However, the Eircom announcement is bound to have an impact on jobs especially in marginalised regions.