I have identified three areas where there is need for structural reform in order for Ireland to prosper in the future - electoral reform, educational reform and entrepreneurial reform.  These are my thoughts on these issues. 

1. Reform the system of election.  There should be at least 10% of the elected officials (Senate and Dail) without constituency.  This would mean that local interests are catered for, while also allowing people with particular skills to go forward for election.  Right now, a major reason why a TD gets elected is because he does something for his constituency, or because he is a well-known sportsman or because there is a family history of being elected in that area.  If we had about 15 ‘national’ candidates in the mix, they couldn’t possibly be simply loyal to their constituency, they would have to be loyal to the country as a whole.  They could be more radical, the candidates would not have to go to endless dinner dances and endlessly shake hands with the local great and the good.  Their electioneering would be more like a presidential campaign, not like a local campaign.  They wouldn’t be expected to continuously turn up at every opening of an envelope.

2. Upskilling in mathematics and sciences.  These subjects are the biggest turn-offs for second level students.  They avoid higher level maths - it seems either irrelevant or uninteresting and abstract.  The fact is that maths takes time and it needs real-world examples in order to develop a love for the subject.  Science also has the same effect.  Thankfully, science has some wonderfully geeky outcomes (ipods, gaming, special effects in movies, natural history programming on TV) and so it still can attract an audience.  So, how do we rectify the situation?  One solution is to ask our second level teachers to teach for an additional month each year - at no additional pay, it must be emphasised.  Yes, this will give students a little more time to absorb the subjects, immerse themselves in the subjects and truly learn.  Or at least it provides more of an opportunity.  Did you know that students either do not improve by any appreciable amount in their reading ability during summer holidays (on average, that is) or they actually disimprove and need to make up ground again in September?  Well, one simple solution is to reduce the summer holidays and provide students with more ‘real world’ experiences in a structured school environment.  So, rather than reduce the public service, increase what it does and increase productivity.  Also, this has the potential to reduce teenage delinquency, help parents that don’t have the support to look after their kids for three months in summer, etc.

3. Explain more clearly what can be achieved through better broadband infrastructure and make sure this infrastructure is developed and companies like Clearwire don’t get away with their appalling service.  Give people examples of what they can do when they have 20 Mb broadband services.  How they can generate income and employment and then insist that our infrastructure is developed by commercial entities.  Furthermore, the government needs to promote this kind of activity, particularly to 18 year olds.  Let them know that the world has changed and they can be the drivers of change in Ireland.  They don’t have to feel subordinate to anybody and they don’t have to be patronised. 

The idea here is to be innovative - building roads has been fine up to now, but the future is not in heavy industry, it is in science, innovation and entrepreneurship.  We need to start at the top - some of our politicians need to be entrepreneurs and they need to be released from the narrow confines of their constituency roles.  We need to have an excellent broadband infrastructure and we need to have an excellent intellectual infrastructure, built around maths, science and engineering.  If we are financially secure and opportunities are available to everybody, then we should have the potential to have a better society.  This requires that everybody has access to infrastructure and that everybody has the chance to make a contribution. 

To quote Bobby Kennedy “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”