Mr. Sean O'Sullivan:

If given the opportunity to opt for one of the two - in his own book Mr. Cunningham cheated in this regard - I would probably choose education. We could do a number of things. For example, the Khan Academy involves self-paced instruction and inverting the classroom. These approaches can work at a secondary level and encourage the brightest minds to apply themselves in focusing on what our society truly needs. We need more of the nation-building types of individuals who can create jobs. Many people do not realise that the top talent from Irish institutions is going into law and medicine which are very noble professions but they relate to service economies. That is very limited because one is not scaling the number of jobs one is creating for society. If an engineer is creative and bright, he or she can develop a company or an industry which can create hundreds of jobs, whereas a doctor may service a couple of patients each day. Our society needs to produce people to fill these roles.

We in Ireland have a tendency to say, "Let us give something to this, that or other university and it will develop specialists in a certain area." I do not believe that is necessarily the best way to operate. I would create one MIT-like institution in Ireland which all of the very top talent would attend. Everyone who graduated would know that he or she was competing among the very best in the country. This would ensure we would not lower the skill or talent level in each of the universities.

Another action I would take would be to bring to an end the overly specialised disciplines. I invented the term "cloud computing". I do not know if members are familiar with it. Irish institutions now offer degrees in cloud computing, which is nuts. They also offer degrees in other super-specialised areas. It is not that these are not important specialties relating to important industries. Elsewhere in the world, however, people obtain degrees in electrical engineering or computer science and they may specialise in or concentrate on a particular aspect. Here we offer esoteric degrees which will not prepare someone for his or her entire career. Rather, they will only prepare someone for the next five years and this is only if one truly believes the degree is in such a specialised area. There were no cloud computing systems ten years ago, but software was available. We must be concerned about this over-specialisation. Much of it is the result of the way the points system for the leaving certificate works. All of this would need to be adjusted.

That is my take on the matter. I do not have all the answers because I just run a business. Since the Chairman asked me to indulge my fantasy, however, I took the opportunity to do so.