Ireland must come together to grasp the opportunity

The Covid-19 pandemic has presented Ireland with an opportunity to transform how we live, work, and socialise. Investment in ambitious long-term projects which deliver intense collaboration between the public and private sectors, as exemplified by the National Broadband Plan, offer the chance to seize this opportunity asserts David McCourt, Chairman of National Broadband Ireland.

Ireland is a country that has played a big leadership role globally for over 100 years. I recently read the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic; it was written during the First World War when Ireland was fighting for independence. On three occasions, the document references that women will be equal partners in the future of Ireland. This was a full four years before the United States allowed women the right to vote.

Ireland was bold in its electrification of the country, and recently with its road network. Ireland was the first country in the world to institute a nationwide comprehensive smoke free workplace law. Ireland was the first country to legalise same sex marriage by popular vote. The free education scheme of the 60s led to what we have today, which is a country that at last measure had the highest share of population in Europe with university graduates. Despite EU opposition, Ireland developed a very business friendly tax scheme to attract the largest companies in the world to set up shop, hire, train and employ thousands of Irish people.

Most recently, Ireland was among a tiny elite group that made it a human right to have high-speed broadband available to every man, woman, and child in the country through its National Broadband Plan. It is these brave, long-term policies that come at significant short-term cost that have allowed Ireland to claim a leadership role on the world-stage.

This mentality is also what has taken Ireland from being a small agricultural economy to a global player. While still geographically small, today it ranks number six in commercial service exports globally. This is a significant feat, and it is what will shape the future of work for Irish citizens for generations to come.

The signs look extremely promising. Ireland has had one of the fastest growing GDPs in the European Union every year for the past two decades. All this success came the hard way, by policymakers making difficult decisions and sticking with them, supported by the business community. This way of thinking and acting is dying fast elsewhere, and we can be proud that Ireland has bucked the trend.

What is apparent to me, in these turbulent social, economic and political times, is that Ireland does not need to change to meet the world. The world needs to change to meet Ireland. Our small country has a chance to show the world a new disruptive way forward.

Equal access to connectivity breeds equal opportunities

In November 2019, the Government signed contracts with our team at National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to deliver the highly anticipated National Broadband Plan (NBP). Recognised as one of the biggest and most ambitious projects of its kind globally, the NBP is the biggest investment in Rural Ireland ever, frequently likened to rural electrification.

Fast-forward to today and the Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly underlined the criticality of reliable, high-speed connectivity, which has become essential for work, education and so many aspects of our lives.

Make no mistake, this is a huge project born out of incredibly bold and forward-thinking policy decisions, demonstrating tremendous leadership from policymakers which will be respected the world over.

Stretching across 96 per cent of the country’s land mass, we are laying enough fibre to go around the world nearly four times. Specifically, this means deploying fibre on approximately 1.5 million poles — many of them new — over 15,000km of underground ducts and will run along almost 100,000km of the road network. This is a size and scale that is unprecedented and requires collaboration across the public and private sectors to expedite the roll out in the national interest.

This is about radically changing the broadband landscape across the country to ensure that every person in Ireland has access to high-speed broadband, no matter where they live or work. It is quite an incredible feat, and it is going to be transformational for Ireland.

The economy is moving globally to be tech enabled and the foundation for that is having connectivity to every person. Across almost all developed countries, what we see today is a digital divide whereby urban areas have an incredible advantage with access to connectivity and digital services, but many rural areas have been left underserved and that causes all sorts of problems.

Urban areas around the world have been growing by three million people a week; that means every three weeks we are creating another Hong Kong or another London or another New York. That’s unsustainable from an environmental standpoint, from a carbon footprint standpoint, from a cost of housing standpoint, and from a congestion standpoint. The only way to turn that around is to get people employed where they live, so they do not have to commute.

Covid-19 has shown us that it is possible. We must be in a position where people in a rural environment can start a business or grow a business from where they live. You can’t just assume that the only smart people in the world are those who live in an urban environment.

Public and private sector collaboration is critical to long-term success

While it is a vital part of the puzzle, what we also need to remember is that connectivity is only the enabler, or the foundations of the ‘house’. The roof still must go on top, and the windows and doors need to be put in. Access to connectivity will inspire tremendous advances across healthcare, education, business, agriculture and so on, and it is going to be fascinating how Ireland embraces this opportunity in its typical entrepreneurial fashion.

The pandemic has shown us in no uncertain terms that technology and innovation have the opportunity to transform people’s lives, businesses, jobs, education and healthcare. Investment in long-term strategies to these issues, where cooperation between the public and private sectors sets out a path where tech is harnessed to shape people’s future, must offer the key to a limitless future.

David McCourt is the founder and CEO of Granahan McCourt Capital and the Chairman of National Broadband Ireland. He is the author of bestseller Total Rethink: Why Entrepreneurs Should Act Like Revolutionaries and is an Emmy award-winning TV producer.

For more information:

W: www.nbi.ie