Day Three of official business in the NI Assembly and already our MLAs are addressing the issues that impact on our lives - the CPA. I initially figured that this referred to the appointment of some accounting body to oversee their expenditure as they would want to be seen to be frugal in these challenging times. But I was mistaken.
How do trips to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Barbados or Montserrat appeal to you? Nice holiday destinations?.....well then membership of the CPA is just what you need. The CPA is the The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and membership is open to the national, provincial, state and territorial Parliaments and Legislatures of the countries of the Commonwealth. MLAs passed a motion to re-apply for membership in light of the return of devolved government.
But of course its not about the possibility of exotic trips that Northern Ireland is joining. There are serious political reasons why membership would be advantageous. Alban Maginness stated that "it is important that parliamentarians mix together and learn from one another." Well if one thing Northern Ireland politicians need it is lessons in how to mix together. They have spent the last 4 or 5 years avoiding all efforts to do just that (while continuing to take their salaries of course). All the better if this can be done in Sydney rather than Belfast. In addition over the course of the peace process our politicians have had direct contact with politicians like Albert Reynolds, John Major, Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, George Mitchell and Bill Clinton - but maybe they were not school days and they forget to learn anything from them.
Even more interesting was the contribution to the debate from Sean Neeson who argued that "it is time for the Government of the Republic of Ireland to consider joining the CPA in order that they can interact with the other major nations throughout the world"......and I thought that the Republic's membership of the EU and the United Nations already provided that opportunity....silly me.
Jim Wells did point out that any member Government that does not meet normal democratic standards is removed, with its membership suspended until democracy is restored. I wonder if the CPA might like to consider the fact that one of the first decisions of the NI Assembly was to exclude the Alliance Party from membership of the Review Committee, the committee charged with policing the actions of the devolved Government. By excluding any member from a party not already in Government they are not showing much of the democratic standards Mr. Wells aspires to.
At the outset of the debate Alban Maginness did argue that membership of the CPA should not be an exercise in junketing - well if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck I think its safe to assume its a duck.
Entrepreneurship in Northern Ireland
The most interesting topic to arise out of the visit of EC President Manuel Barroso to the incoming First and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland was his undertaking that a study would be carried out into ways to encourage entrepreneurship.
According to Wikipedia it was the Irish born economist, Richard Cantillion, that first defined an entrepreneur. So in some ways this island already has a head start in understanding entrepreneurship. The Wikipedia definition goes on to define an entrepreneur as an individual who undertakes and operates a new enterprise and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. Business entrepreneurs are willing to accept a high level of personal, professional or financial risk to pursue that opportunity.
If anything Northern Ireland has certainly created a breed of individual who recognise an opportunity and assume the risks associated with pursuing this enterprise. The Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF) estimates that intellectual property theft in NI is worth £200 million, and that fuel (and other cross border) smuggling is worth £245 million in lost revenue. Add to that some NI farmers ability to be creative in the claiming of headage payments for sheep and I think it is fair to say that we have a strong entrepreneurial culture, its just some of it is very poorly directed.
The success of companies like Norbrook, under the direction of Edward Haughey and the Quinn Group ,with Sean Quinn at the helm, prove that Northern Ireland is capable of producing entrepreneurs that can compete with the best the global marketplace can offer.
If it is generally accepted that real entrepreneurship can not be taught what can be done to encourage the risk takers in business to thrive and prosper in NI? Personally I think any study would need to focus on the role of Invest NI and its culture for developing entrepreneurial spirit within the business community. Is Invest NI prepared to match the risk that the start up business might be taking? At times I find that, due to public accountability, that Government departments tend to operate like banks in the way they decide on the allocation of monies. For local businesses, unless you can gold plate a return on the money invested, it is very hard to get support from Invest NI. Rather than being guided by consultants and educators the guidance should be coming from successful business people who have started up an enterprise and made a success of it. Of course public money needs to be accounted for and not spent foolishly, as otherwise the tab is picked up by the taxpayer, but a balance might need to be struck.
While reality TV can not always be taken as a guide to real life it was evident from watching BBC's Dragon's Den that successful business people, while of course looking mostly for a track record in business from potential candidates, were sometimes prepared to take a risk on a project, despite it being risky, as they believed that could recognise a drive, an ambition in the individual to make it work. While on a business plan the project was full of risk they were prepared to invest in the individual. You would have to wonder in a climate of public accountability if there exists in bodies like Invest NI the ability to take a high risk chance on an individual - there might be some failures, but one success could give you a Sean Quinn or Edward Haughey whose contribution to the NI economy would outweigh other failures.
According to Wikipedia it was the Irish born economist, Richard Cantillion, that first defined an entrepreneur. So in some ways this island already has a head start in understanding entrepreneurship. The Wikipedia definition goes on to define an entrepreneur as an individual who undertakes and operates a new enterprise and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. Business entrepreneurs are willing to accept a high level of personal, professional or financial risk to pursue that opportunity.
If anything Northern Ireland has certainly created a breed of individual who recognise an opportunity and assume the risks associated with pursuing this enterprise. The Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF) estimates that intellectual property theft in NI is worth £200 million, and that fuel (and other cross border) smuggling is worth £245 million in lost revenue. Add to that some NI farmers ability to be creative in the claiming of headage payments for sheep and I think it is fair to say that we have a strong entrepreneurial culture, its just some of it is very poorly directed.
The success of companies like Norbrook, under the direction of Edward Haughey and the Quinn Group ,with Sean Quinn at the helm, prove that Northern Ireland is capable of producing entrepreneurs that can compete with the best the global marketplace can offer.
If it is generally accepted that real entrepreneurship can not be taught what can be done to encourage the risk takers in business to thrive and prosper in NI? Personally I think any study would need to focus on the role of Invest NI and its culture for developing entrepreneurial spirit within the business community. Is Invest NI prepared to match the risk that the start up business might be taking? At times I find that, due to public accountability, that Government departments tend to operate like banks in the way they decide on the allocation of monies. For local businesses, unless you can gold plate a return on the money invested, it is very hard to get support from Invest NI. Rather than being guided by consultants and educators the guidance should be coming from successful business people who have started up an enterprise and made a success of it. Of course public money needs to be accounted for and not spent foolishly, as otherwise the tab is picked up by the taxpayer, but a balance might need to be struck.
While reality TV can not always be taken as a guide to real life it was evident from watching BBC's Dragon's Den that successful business people, while of course looking mostly for a track record in business from potential candidates, were sometimes prepared to take a risk on a project, despite it being risky, as they believed that could recognise a drive, an ambition in the individual to make it work. While on a business plan the project was full of risk they were prepared to invest in the individual. You would have to wonder in a climate of public accountability if there exists in bodies like Invest NI the ability to take a high risk chance on an individual - there might be some failures, but one success could give you a Sean Quinn or Edward Haughey whose contribution to the NI economy would outweigh other failures.
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