In a highly significant move, the IDA chief executive has criticised the Irish education system and demanded a fundamental review of policy priorities.Mr Sean Dorgan said education policy needs to be much more connected to the wider needs of society.
He expressed dismay at how a report by the Task Force on Science, which attempted to arrest the fall-off in students taking the subject, has been allowed to gather dust.
Too many of our debates about education, he said, are confined to educationalists. "We treat education too often as a separate sector and educationalists as different. And we have not had a fundamental rethink since Investing in Education in the 1960s."
The speech is highly unusual as the IDA has traditionally been reluctant to intervene in education policy issues.
But the address reflects the impatience among many in the business community about what they see as the inward-looking nature of Irish education.
Business leaders have been shocked by the fall-off in applications for science and computer courses at third level - and the delay in making the subject more attractive at second level.
Education policy, according to Mr Dorgan, needs to be connected to other national policy priorities instead of being treated separately.
As it is, the education debate is dominated by the providers in the sector - teachers, academics and others, he said.
These people, he said, very often speak only about resources. How often, he asked, have we had serious thinking about the type, nature and linkages of our future education? Policy is often dominated by "internal detail" rather than the wider context, he said in an address to the weekend Colmcille Winter School in Donegal.
He added: "More and more, education in all its aspects must reach out and connect to its social and economic environment.
" I suggest that isolation and rigidities in structures, in policy thinking, and in teaching and learning, are a competitive disadvantage for any country."
Mr Dorgan listed key priorities for Irish education policy:
To continue in our educational system to reinforce those sophisticated cultural advantages we have - creativity, flexibility, agility and nimbleness.
To broaden access to and understanding of technology and science, not to make everyone a scientist but, in the course of everyone's education, to give a basic understanding of the language of science.
To continue to invest strongly in research, in a coherent national effort, to deepen our human capital and advance knowledge as our most sustainable competitive advantage.
To achieve considerably more progress at "fourth level" - more postgraduates, doctorates, and post-doctorates, especially but not exclusively in the areas of future technology.
And to connect all this to business by strong linkages that increase the returns to society.
On science, he said the first action taken when the task force produced a comprehensive report a year ago was " to kick it to touch - to refer it for further consultation. It is a matter of deep disappointment that it has not been acted upon. It is not sufficient to say that resources are not available".
On research funding, he said some of those in receipt of funds take insufficient account of national strategic priorities. "We need to be much more focused and connected in how we use our resources."
He added: "The strongest voices, including some in the education sector, tend to be those that claim the need to be treated separately or differently, rather than those favouring integration and coherence."
