The Irish Times Innovation Awards April 2014 | Page 2

INNOVATION AWARDS 2014

INTRODUCTION
Michael McAleer

At The Irish Times our focus on
Innovation was sparked in 2005/2006
by various commentaries within
business and academia stressing the
need to move our economies – North
and south - to the next level. Even at
the height of the Celtic Tiger, and with
coherent signs of a peace dividend
in Northern Ireland, we needed to
decouple from its dependence on
multinationals and Foreign Direct
Investment.
We needed to nurture a vibrant

community of start-ups and an
environment that welcomed new ideas,
from new and established firms from
the high-tech labs or the factory floors.
The Innovation project was designed
to recognise, discuss, inform, and
encourage these ideas to fruition. In
short our goal was to help encourage
people to execute their ideas into active
innovations across the island.
Alongside the dedicated Innovation
coverage in The Irish Times we
introduced these awards – in
association with InterTradeIreland – to
further recognise and reward innovation
on the island. Like innovation itself, this
project is an evolving process for The
Irish Times with several more strands to
come. We hope to play an active part in
the Innovation debate and do our bit to
nurture new ideas in the years to come.

SPEECH
An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny