Disturbing yesterday to witness angry street protests in Central Dublin.  In fairness what was striking was the level of anger and frustration of so many people – much of it based on fear about the future.

In today’s Irish Times I read a commentary on the speech by David Guinane, at last night’s Institute of Bankers’ Dinner.  His comments included: ‘As bankers, we must recognise first and foremost that this crisis has been caused by the failure of our sector to fully understand and manage the risks inherent in our business‘.

This type of sentiment – expressed publicly – is part of the required social and economic reconciliation process.  Serious mistakes were made by bankers – for a range of commercial reasons.  Others were not innocent – those who got caught up in various ventures, those who adjusted the basis of the country’s finance, those  who failed to implement rigorous regulation.  Some may have overstepped the mark completely.

It is important that groups acknowledge their mistakes (and any wrongdoing where it took place).  There are many who could follow Mr Guinane’s line – it would greatly assist the reconciliation process.

Now we need to focus on learning the lessons, taking the corrective actions and reforming as a team.  There are some signs of this – but one should not underestimate the anger of those marching yesterday.  The reconciliation process to date has been inadequate.

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Interesting piece in Fortune

San Francisco gets smart with green technology

…in the context of Ireland and its drive for a smart economy and knowledge society.

As I stand at bus stops wondering when the next bus is due and I think about the technology which is so easily available I wonder why we are not moving forward faster e.g. integrated ticketing?

Dublin needs to be a smart city.  Press on asap.  Food for thought in this article.

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Well done to David McWilliams and the Irish Government on the forthcoming conference with leaders drawn from the Irish diaspora.

Reread the piece in the Irish Times earlier this week.  Topics to include:

• the global economy: positioning Ireland for the upturn
• Ireland – the innovation island
• promoting brand Ireland through our global cultural profile
• Ireland’s image abroad: what is it now, how can it be improved and what role can new media play
• Ireland and its Diaspora: harnessing unique resource

Would not argue with the relevance or appropriateness of any of these topics.

When I read about other countries beginning their planning for ‘post recession’, for removing some of the stimuli that have been required in the last 18 months – it seems to me that we are a little behind.  However this must inform out thinking and approach in the conference.  Must understand where the diaspora are coming from – where are they in their cycles?

We don’t need to be thinking that we are the only ones to have screwed up in the last number of years.  We have a particular deficit arising from some crazy property lending and some run away public expenditure commitments.  However some of the really crazy stuff was in the US – and spread through the world.

Partnerhsip is what comes to mind.  What can we do for the diaspora and what can they do for us?  I hope that a number of them will spell out in black and white the requirement for us to put our finances on a sound basis – NAMA apart, we have to stop spending more than we earn.  But what does the diaspora want from us?  Do they have any interest in having more of a say in what goes on here?

I remember listening many years ago to Liam O’Mahony (former CRH CEO) speak at a lunch shortly after he had returned from the US to take on the group CEO role.  He spoke of his frustrations trying to resettle in Ireland e.g getting kids back into schools here.  He commented on the excellent benefits enjoyed by Irish (and European) workers compared with US workers in terms of vacations, maternity leave, sick leave etc.   But he reminded us that we are required to compete in global market places – if you want better benefits then you have to be more efficient or accept lower rewards.  And he also spoke of the importance to a city such as Dublin of having corporate headquarters of multinationals located here e.g. CRH – in terms of presence, profiling of the city, sponsorhip of local initiatives in education, arts, sport, etc.

I wonder will much of what O’Mahony was saying previously be echoed in the conference.

I dealt with some related matters in a posting in August: ‘Ireland – continuing to play our part on the world stage’.  While I believe Msrrs Cowen and Martin will be doing a great deal of listening during the conference I think it is important that they share their vision for Ireland (including the Irish diaspora) with  the conference participants.  Unfortunately I do not think a good job has been done to date of communicating this vision – assuming there is one.  ‘Smart economy’ comes to mind – but I am not talking about such sound bites.  What are our brilliant young people leaving Ireland in the next few years taking with them in terms of a future vision for Ireland?  Will there be a real commitment from the Irish government to provide them with a forum in which they can continue to contribute while working and living across the globe? Perhaps some of those attending the conference – who have gone overseas and made theri mark – may feel that this is something in which we let them down or missed an opportunity.

Finally – I do hope that the conference will find room to involve some of the younger Irish about to go overseas or who went reasonably recently.  Their perspective is vital.

Looking forward to informed debate and creative, positive thinking.

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Watching the politicians tonight after Fianna Fail and the Greens have taken a hammering in the local and European elections.  All but FF and Greens promoting the need for an immediate general election.  FF and Greens arguing that government should continue to govern.

Joan Burton (Labour) and Mary Lou MacDonald (SF) surely should be on one side (left) – with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael on the other (right).  This whole show is a waste of time and energy.  We are looking at two centre right parties – FF and FG – who should merge.  They may have different ideas on what to do with public expenditure, banks, etc – but effectively represent same interests.

At some stage surely Labour and SF can work out how to come together – perhaps now that Labour feel more confident (at least in Dublin) they can look to work with SF.

Please quite the squabbling.  Michael Martin and Richard Bruton should be in one party.  Mary Lou MacDonald and Joan Burton should be in one party.  Then we might finally have a real choice between right and left.

As usual John Bowman’s  mastery of his subject matter and genuine fairness is outstanding.

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Good article in the online Wall Street Journal ‘Wealth less effect, earning well, feeling otherwise’.  Looks at a number of  people who may appear to be earning well but are now experiencing the impact of the recesssion and large scale reduction in their apparent wealth.

Article makes the point that the perspective of a couple making $250K may be very different from a person on $50K  - which is pretty obvious, but intended to show some social awareness on the hehalf of the journalist.

Felt the same article could be written to describe many situations in Ireland at present.  Investment properties, pension funds, etc. taking a hammering.  Reuced earnings in business.  Increased taxes.  Second homes which are proving a significant burden.  And the promise of more taxes to come.

Bu then this is globalisation – same problems in Florida, California, Dublin and Connemara.

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Attended a great conference yesterday in Dublin Castle: Governance and the citizen, Dubliners and their City.  Svend Auken (Former leader of the Danish Social Democrats and current party spokesperson on EU affairs) gave an excellent presentation re the Aarhus Convention - and Michael Ewing provided the summary of his research into adoption and compliance with Aarhus in Ireland. Conor Skehan (Head of Department of Environment and Planning, Dublin Institute of Technology) was very direct in his concerns that people are becoming over concerned with the appointment of a directly elected Mayor for Dublin – and that more correctly we need to understand Dublin and its hinterland).  Gabriel Metcalfe (Executive Director, San Francisco Policy and Urban Research Association) explained the role played by his organisation, SPUR, in setting and driving the citizen led agenda in San Francisco.

Congratulations to all those involved.  David O’Gorman did a great job in giving us the opportunity, through the conference, to compare the Danish, the US (multiple cities) and the Irish experience.  A real wake up call to citizens of Dublin. 

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Attended great presentation by David Chappell at Microsoft in Dublin this morning.  Fascinating comparison of the offerings from SalesForce, Microsoft, Google and Amazon.  Interesting explanation of Microsoft's focus on providing a platform in this version of Azure to enable us to build the next 'Facebook'. 

Explained why cannot migrate classic enterprise applications to this Azure platform.  The Azure platform uses hierarchical database structures (scalable) – not relational database as would be required to support MSQ SQL Server based applications.

Interesting discussion about the difficulties of naming new Microsoft products/ solutions.

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Played Royal Dublin last week.  What a marvellous job they have done on the redevelopment of their course.  The course was in great condition.  Royal Dublin presents a fair but difficult challenge with the protection of the wind. 

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Played in the Mercury (www.mercury.ie) Golf Outing at the Castle last Friday.  Format was a three person team, two to count.  A most enjoyable afternoon, great company, on a thinking person’s golf course.  Seems to me the trees on the course encroach more each year – presenting more challenges or problems to the golfer. 

As a regular links golfer I have often thought that inland courses produce straighter drivers of the ball – being used to having to hit the ball between tunnels of trees, as against links players who may benefit from playing from the adjoining fairway.  And then in the summer time, with significant run on the ball, the links player may hit irons from many tees – there being a very real premium on hitting the fairway and benefiting from up to 100m of run, depending on specific conditions.

Any keen golfer visiting Dublin should try to play The Castle – beautiful mature golf course, lots of decisions to be made, rewards good shot making.  And the catering has always be excellent whenever I’ve played there.

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