TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

technology advances. It should equally apply to all other sectors of the economy.
Ireland really needs to survey the entire innovation landscape and identify areas in
which it can apply the strong Irish tradition and global network of creativity to
occupy unique positions of competitive advantage.
15. The Irish manufacturing sector faces enormous challenges – not necessarily of its
own making, nor within its control to rectify. Wage costs are now wildly out of line,
and costs of energy, waste, water treatment, environmental management,
regulatory compliance, municipal and utility charges are experiencing significant
rises. Skill shortages also abound. High costs and high prices, therefore, must be
matched by high productivity and high quality. Of necessity, the manufacturing
sector is highly innovative, driven by investment and the need to be cost
competitive. Its survival is under severe threat, and there is a need for
government, business, employees and trade unions to tackle the problem
coherently. The long-term effects of further neglect could be fatal to the
prosperity of the Irish economy.
16. In making the transition to a creative, knowledge-based, innovation-driven
economy, the design and delivery of the workplace of the future will play a
significant role. The National Partnership Forum suggested that the key
characteristics for such a future workplace are that is should be: agile, customer
centred, knowledge intensive, responsive to employee needs, networked, highly
productive, involved and participatory, continually learning and proactively diverse.
17. While Ireland has undoubtedly benefited from a series of national agreements,
which started in 1987, it will demand considerable responsibility, sense of reality
and responsiveness by all the social partners to maintain and sharpen the
competitive edge of the economy going forward. Indeed, the principal conclusion of
the government report Ahead of the Curve was that the capability profile of
enterprise in Ireland is unbalanced and the next phase of entrepreneurship will
require a single-minded focus on planning, exceptional partnership across multiple
groups and excellence in execution.
18. There is an urgent need to reposition agriculture as part of a sustainable and
competitive rural economy. Over a quarter of the rural population is employed in
agriculture and the building industry, where long-term contraction can be expected.
However, the contraction of these industries could be off-set if rural regions could
share in the overall growth in the export-oriented service sector. The outcome of
the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Agriculture, and the reduction in
protection of the EU market and consequent worldwide competition, will be a major
concern for the future of agriculture and the rural economy.
19. Participation in industry clusters and networks is widely recognised as being of
growing importance for innovation and international competitive advantage at the
level of the firm. Such cluster and network development in Ireland remains limited
compared with other advanced economies. Greater coordination among the
agencies and departments of government that support industry, including the thirdlevel
sector of education, is required so that existing industrial strengths can be
reinforced and emerging business opportunities exploited.
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