So, at 2pm today, Colim McCarthy’s report on how to achieve a massive reduction in the state’s annual bills is to be published.

There is intense media focus on this report and perhaps rightly so. It will mean salary cuts, social welfare cuts, job losses, etc.

The focus of the entire country is on this document.  There seems to be no other show in town.

However, cutbacks and reductions and job losses won’t get us out of the problems we are facing.

Innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship will.

The ESRI says we are approaching the bottom of the downturn - we don’t have much farther to go.  So, perhaps if you were thinking of being a bit bold, of starting up a new company or business or were thinking of exanding, floating an idea to potential investors, etc., it might be time to do it.

This kind of idea is not newsworthy. I doesn’t make people sit up and listen, simply because it is a slow process. Colin McCarthy’s report today will have an instantaneous effect on people’s vision of the future.

Bleating on about innovation will never have the same effect, unfortunately.