Entrepreneurial Innovation and the National Development Plan

Martin Murray, CEO of Furthr explores how the €275 billion National Development Plan opens the door for innovative founders to shape the future of Ireland—not just abroad, but at home too.

In the Irish startup support ecosystem it has long been recognized that in order to scale successfully, innovative startups need to have an export orientation. This makes sense in a small, island economy. For much of the history of the Irish state, the economic activity that would enable enterprises to scale, simply did not exist in a substantial and consistent way, in either the public or private sector in Ireland. This philosophy has informed the criteria used to assess startup enterprises for all sources of funding, including from government agencies and the private sector.

However, the world has changed. The Irish government has just announced a National Development Plan with €275 billion to be spent over 10 years. Housing, water, energy and transport infrastructure will all receive billions in funding. Understandably, given recent experiences with the National Children’s Hospital, unmet housing targets and infrastructural planning delays, there are significant concerns about the ability of the state to deploy this funding effectively. If finance alone was the solution to these problems, they would have been solved some time ago. Clearly, new thinking, new skills, new methods and much more, are required. As a state, we have an executional capability deficit.

Let’s not suggest that building the Dublin Metro Link or the Shannon to Dublin Water Supply project should be handed over to some innovative startup enterprises. However, now could be a good time to ask what is the appropriate contribution that innovative early stage enterprises can make to the overwhelming domestic challenges that the country faces. If you are looking for new thinking, new skills and new methods, founders of innovative startup enterprises have a unique contribution to make. Irish startup and scale-up enterprises are already delivering transformational leadership in those sectors in which the NDP investing. HTL Tech, a scale-up enterprise based in the Guinness Enterprise Centre, has successfully completed the 3D printing of a scheme of social housing in Dundalk. Evercam is transforming productivity in the construction industry, in Ireland and around the world, with its AI-enabled video monitoring solutions. Gridbeyond has revolutionized the usage, connectivity and efficiency of energy generation, storage and distribution assets.

A small portion of the National Development Plan funding going into innovative early stage enterprises has the potential to deliver an outsized impact in terms of on-time and in-budget outcomes. Similarly, aligning the research activity in Universities and Research Performing Organisations with the objectives of the NDP, gives the potential for an all-of-government, all-of-society approach to the most significant challenges faced today.

Just a thought....