Cowen unveils his new Cabinet
08-05-2008
by Billy MacInnes

The first cabinet announced by Brian Cowen delivered few surprises from an ICT perspective as Eamon Ryan held on to his Communications, Energy and Natural Resources portfolio.

Ryan has also been given responsibility for co-ordinating the Action Plan for the Knowledge Society, with Cowen suggesting the impact of converging communications technologies "creates a new context and that our strategy for success in the Knowledge Society should be developed and co-ordinated in close association with that branch of policy". The action plan is expected to be published over the summer.

In related developments, Mary Coughlan was appointed as minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as well as becoming Tanaiste, replacing Micheal Martin who now heads up the Foreign Affairs department. Meanwhile, Batt O'Keeffe was given the Education and Science brief with Mary Hanafin moving to Social and Family Affairs.

The vote of confidence by the new Taoiseach in Ryan was not wholeheartedly endorsed by those in the industry. Magnet CEO Mark Kellett claimed Ryan had "failed to demonstrate any vision or indeed action around the broadband debate and, as I have said in the past, his primary focus seems to be around green energy".

He told ENN that Ryan's equating of the market's success with the high adoption rates of mobile broadband was a "cop out" that deflected from "the failure to develop or implement any action plan/strategy on broadband".

Kellett accused the minister of outsourcing decision making on broadband to "quangos and consultants" and failing to engage "with those who have the real knowledge of the Irish telecoms/broadband market, specifically the operators like Magnet".

Kathryn Raleigh, director at ICT Ireland, welcomed the announcement that Minister Ryan would co-ordinate the action plan for the Knowledge Society. "We've been waiting for the action plan for quite some time," she said, adding that the announcement of a summer publication date was very welcome.

Building a knowledge society and knowledge economy was "extremely important" for Ireland and needed to cover everything from education to skills to the pervasiveness of technology across society, she said.