The finalists in a competition to suggest new ideas for the nation were announced today. Your Country Your Call is the brainchild of Dr. Martin McAleese and aims to find new ideas to boost our economy and create new jobs. An extensive advertising campaign took place earlier this year seeking applications and ideas from around the world and two winning ideas will win €100,000 and have a further €500,000 each spent on implementation.

The scheme is backed by the Department of Enterprise and Employment and many companies who have donated staff and resources to the programme. The organisation were anxious to assert their independence and goodwill associated with the competition and said that it was not about supporting any government policy but about getting the country back on it’s feet.

So ideas were invited, some of them more serious than others, there was much cynicism and a few legs being pulled and the judges were set the task of wading through the inspirations of the nation – their criteria are named as

1. The degree of fresh thinking and creativity that has been applied in building the proposal

2. The scale of what is being proposed – does it have the possibility of generating significant employment opportunities?

3. A convincing case for implementation – do we have the resources (financial, human, technical, infrastructural…) – or could we get them? what barriers need to be overcome? how long is implementation likely to take?

The five proposals named as finalists today include one which seems to have done the rounds before – indeed it is included in a government policy document launched last year by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan. (See pg. 51)

Neil Leyden’s Opportunity for Ireland to become a Global Media Hub

The proposal sets out initially to create an Irish Content Industry Association which would then drive the development of a cultural and creative quarter, a Media Park to attract global content industries, and creating the necessary legislative and regulatory environment to make Ireland a leading global centre for the creation and distribution of digital content.

In July 2009 Minister Ryan announced

The Government intends to establish an International Content Services Centre, modelled on the IFSC to harness skills in the following areas:

– Digital creative arts (film, games, music and animation)

– Modern communications technology

– Legal and other professional services

The ICSC will provide content generation, distribution and management expertise. The facility will support the development of the 1,000 digital content companies currently located in Ireland.

The proposed centre will act as a broker between digital content developers/owners and the major content distributors. A feasibility study for the ICSC will be finalised by the end of the year and the centre has the potential to create up to 10,000 jobs by 2020.

Today the minister welcomed the announcement of the finalists smart and green that they are, wonder what he’ll say if his previously announced policy initiative wins?

While there is no doubt that this idea is Neil Leyden’s it is one which is over a year old and has been used by the Irish Government in setting policy in the state. I assume that the judges checked the submission and it’s history out and will be able to stand over the independence of the project should it win. Maybe the feasibility study promised by the Minister is already completed but he didn’t have the budget to take it any further, step up YCYC.