TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

But all has not been good news. To quote a leading observer of the times: “The Technology
Rubicon was nearly a Styx”. Ireland went off the high-board during the 2010’s into the
knowledge revolution. It carried out all the twists and somersaults to perfection. The pool
metaphorically, however, was full of acid. The exponential explosion of information was simply
too great to manage. Commercial expediency resulted in data being exploited before it
became knowledge. Wider perspectives were never sought, or were otherwise unavailable. The
‘bio’ industries experienced one catastrophe after another, and medicines released as wonder
drugs were discovered to have transmissible, hereditary effects. Crop genetic engineering was
another near disaster, both in terms of species corruption into useless mutations and
uncontrollable contamination of the environment in the wild. Irish agriculture products were
caricatured as “green but gross”, and huge international lawsuits emanated from almost every
importing nation.
Nevertheless, for the past five years or so, the emphasis has switched to an economic policy
based on localist and cooperative values, favouring low-growth, low innovation, modular and
sustainable practices. The fast-growing sectors of the economy are small-scale manufacturing,
the arts and crafts, slow food, organic farming and heritage tourism. Services remain the most
important area of the economy, but the sector has undergone significant change. As average
household income is comparatively low, and people are tending to turn away from the
materialistic, the demand for services is oriented increasingly towards fulfilling basis needs.
Services targeted to high-income brackets, international markets and business-related services
(marketing, corporate finance and management consultancy) tend to suffer. Personal services,
such as health care, tourism, retailing, hospitality and leisure become increasingly localised. In
the manufacturing sector the stress is on customisation, quality, service and reliability. The
construction industry continues to be dominated by small firms, with a predilection towards
traditional housing, but with a skill base that is greatly enhanced, leading to efficiency gains
and high-quality products. Much of the manufacturing sector as a whole, however, remains
labour-intensive, with a fragmented supply chain and low investment.
Sustainability
Over recent years, the Irish have become increasingly resource conscious and environmentally
aware. Two prior decades of despoliation and degradation are the prime reason why. Attitudes
changed dramatically around 2020 when something of a crisis point was reached. The world oil
peak and consequent price escalation; a succession of coastal floods; and the outbreak of
disease due to poor bio-medical and genetically modified farming controls, all converged to
convince a concerned populace of the need to change towards a more conservationist and
sustainable approach.
A brief interlude during the period 2021 to 2023 saw a Green Party led coalition government
introduce successive legislation aimed at securing a path towards sustainable development.
Idealistic, ambitious and autocratic, these measures were made moribund in their format at the
time, being un-fundable from existing budgets and unrealisable in terms of promised time-scale.
They did, however, mark a milestone and point the way. From 2024 onwards, the reforming
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