Dr. Simeon Djankov:

Exactly. By 29 years of age, one has learned as much as one can. After that, it is a more labour-intensive exercise.

Until recently, we thought of broadband as only being something that helped people to stay informed, use their bank accounts, do business, buy products over the Internet and so on. Now there is the concept of it being where we can access learning, especially for young kids. There is no other learning and there are no textbooks or technology courses, so to speak, for three to six year olds. The only way to learn is through broadband, accessing the latest thinking and presenting it to kids in a user-friendly way. Broadband is not just about current business. It is also about a country's future business and competitiveness. "Future" in this context does not mean 50 years from now, but five or ten years from now. These kids are the next generation of people who will determine whether the Irish or European economy will be able to compete with the United States and east Asia.

I have mentioned the statistic that only nine of the 100 largest platform companies, which are companies that have been created in the past ten to 15 years and have global reach, are European. The rest are US and Chinese companies. Given that Europe is larger than the United States in terms of market power and larger than China in terms of purchasing power, why is that number so small? Much of it has to do with embracing technology, but not just for sales. I mentioned the example of Vietnam. Technology must be embraced to extend countries' reach to their populations through health and education so that they can prepare early.