American business leader Craig Barrett has volunteered to help Ireland out of the economic recession currently strangling the board.
The former Intel chief executive has formally announced his offer to join the list of international executives offering to sit on Irish State boards free of charge.
Barrett was the man who introduced Intel to Ireland in the late 1980s. The world’s tech leader is now one of the countries biggest employers and most successful American imports.
Confirming his decision, Barrett told the Irish Times: “Ireland’s rebound in the world’s economy will be driven by smart people and smart ideas.
“The environment to successfully bring these two things together extends well beyond Irish soil and we must integrate the best of Irish innovation from around the world.
“There is an immense resource available and Ireland would be foolish not to take advantage of every ounce of it.”
The Barrett recruitment is a major success for the Irish Technology Leadership Group in California as it continues to recruit business people from around the world who want to help Ireland’s economy.
The project - originally titled Diaspora 2016 - has been rebranded Volunteer 2016 after criticism of the venture by Institute of Directors chief executive Maura Quinn and a refusal by the Irish Government to commit to hiring Diaspora 2016 members.
The Irish Times reports that Quinn said it would not be feasible to have international business people sitting on boards in Ireland.
The report says she also rejected the idea of selecting people based on their links to one group, saying board members should be selected according to their ability.
One American volunteer, former San José mayor Tom McEnery, called Quinn’s remarks “self-serving”.
ITLG founder John Hartnett has since spoken with the Irish government and resolved the issue in order to make it easier for the Irish abroad to get involved in the country’s recovery.
Hartnett told the paper: “They did make a change last year in that they will publicise the availability of board positions and make the process more transparent.
“That was a good step but how does someone in California or Australia find out about this or make an impact?”
”I suggested to the Government setting a target for how many Volunteer 2016 executives will make up State boards.
“We believe 25 per cent should be from outside of Ireland. There are 120 State boards in Ireland and obviously, we wouldn’t be in a position to help with most of them.
“The ones we want to focus on would be Enterprise Ireland, the IDA, and the Science Foundation of Ireland. Those are the boards our members could have the greatest impact.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Robbiepdunn | Jun 06, 2012, 01:26 AM EDT
No Doubt Craig Barrett has the best of intentions, but he is wasting his time trying to help the Irish. I worked for Intel when I went back to live in Ireland and they were great to work for. Ireland is one of the most fertile lands on earth and should be feeding half the world, but the farmers in Ireland are lazy bastards . The country is run by self serving gobshites who could not run a raffle. Anyone with any ability gets out of there its a basket case. The best way to describe Ireland is that its a great PUB sad but true. The four years I lived there drove me mental just listening to the gobshites of politicians. Anyone with half a brain could see the Irish economy was like a train heading for a cliff it was unsustainable. They were paying over the odds for everything. People holidaying from overseas said they loved the place but were ripped off by the greedy bastards so they just did not come back. We blamed the Brits for all our troubles and woes for centuries and rightly so, But the Irish people were betrayed by the politicians the Catholic church and the police who were too chicken to charge the crooks and child abusers . The ripped off the money from the EU funds for their developer friends developers ripped people off selling them over priced houses then left the Irish people with massive debt which will take donkey years to pay off. I loved growing up in Dublin and having the craic but the best thing I ever did was get on a plane like millions of other paddies. Dunner
BrianO | Jun 05, 2012, 07:27 PM EDT
if a company gets all the tax breaks available and more but employs people, don't the employed people pay tax on their incomes? furthermore since they are employed, are they not being supplied a wage from the company?, and therefore not a drain on government funds?
KatieMurphy | Jun 05, 2012, 11:45 AM EDT
Strange how I see enemity of a man who made Intel the manufacturing powerhouse it is, and brought you a desktop PC that outperforms a roomful of computer equipment from not so very long ago. And brought high tech opportunities to Ireland. I wonder if the couple antis here would rather be breaking their back being potato farmers BTW I worked for Intel Corp from 77 to 97. It also paid us very very well, the mgts door was always open. It did everything it could to insure that gays and other minorities were treated equally, even paying extra to cover the taxes on their partners med insurance, since they cant get married. BTW I just learned that he catholic church, which consideres masterbation as Intrinsicly disordered and evil, might not be facing the ridicule it deserves, the renaming of it to the endless hidden molestation church, if it allowed or even encouraged its priests to marry. Maybe whats intrinscially disordered and evil is the VAtican and the german pope Who also committed the crime of the 21st century , by UNexcommuncating Bishop Willimason, a holocaust denier. One would think that the pope would know better, but it appears he either has altsheimers, or learned his lessons well growing up in N--i germany
LoyalCitizen | Jun 05, 2012, 07:00 AM EDT
@Murph46: Typical dimwit statement to make..........You cannot understand plain English so everybody else must be wrong.
Murph46 | Jun 04, 2012, 09:40 PM EDT
Loyal when you make sense,let me know.I can't fathom your meaning of they are not false accounting let alone your other gibberish-I do believe that you are also byethebay in some twisted masquerade.When you decide to make sense-Write, till then take your wrong hypothesis elsewhere!
LoyalCitizen | Jun 04, 2012, 06:19 PM EDT
@Murph46: Be careful they are not false accounting..........If you have children they will be guaranteed to inherit your mistakes.
Murph46 | Jun 04, 2012, 06:06 PM EDT
Byethebay I was there,and you know nothing at all about Ohio in fact three of your statements are factually wrong as usual so I will just ignore your usual ignorance.
Bythebay | Jun 04, 2012, 05:13 PM EDT
Ohio a dismal, depressed State with closed vacant businesses in cities more like ghost towns and a 400,000 jobs loss. No wonder those from Ohio are such bullies. Ohio just brought in Mark Kvamme to try to turn the collapsed economy around. Murph46 is talking about a tax surplus, what she didn't say is the surplus is unclaimed tax refunds people haven't collected. She's the ostrich and how!!
Bythebay | Jun 04, 2012, 04:54 PM EDT
Murph46 was "near Dublin" 17 years ago on vacation. Subsidies for a mill?? Pure unsubstantiated bullying blather which is all she's good for. She was probably shopping!
Murph46 | Jun 04, 2012, 04:41 PM EDT
I don't need to provide anything I've seen it work ,My state Ohio was 850million in debt when our new governor took over,now the politicians are arguing over who gets the tax surplus-how we got there was lowering taxes to incentivize business to relocate,and the ones who were here invest in capital machinery and hire-Look it up!
LoyalCitizen | Jun 04, 2012, 03:49 PM EDT
@Murph46: Rubbish......Subsidies and tax breaks are Social Welfare for the rich...........You are afraid of competition which is why you need to gather wealth from traitorous Irish Politicians.........You make far too many unsubstantiated claims of wealth.........Provide proper accounts that we can check.
Murph46 | Jun 04, 2012, 03:29 PM EDT
As I said come into this century,tax breaks and subsidies are the way to interest investment in your country-any country.Ireland was not and is not unique in giving these subsidies.The question remains -A piece of Industrial property left fallow does NO ONE GOOD-NO TAXES-NO EMPLOYMENT,You can be all the ostrich you want to be with your head in the sand ,but this is the way of current times like it or not.As stated b4 I have been there near Dublin when your people offered nice subsidies for a mill,I have witnessed similar events in my home state when they were trying to lure business from another state.As a result,my state has a surplus of taxes,unemployment here is lower than the national average ,and things are going in the right direction.But people like you know better! Ha! Ha! If they listened to you ,they would be set back 150 years LoyalCitizen!
Bythebay | Jun 04, 2012, 01:46 PM EDT
Ireland funded the American Irish Historical Society million dollar renovation and should not have. Ireland is funding the Irish immigration centers in New York, Ireland is being asked to fund elderly services for those who emigrated years ago and who the US apparently can't provide services for. Craig Barrett needs to help you in the US fund these your programs and not be strangling the Irish taxpayer to support you. Step up to the plate and do the right thing Barrett and US.
LoyalCitizen | Jun 04, 2012, 01:26 PM EDT
@Murph46: If traitorous Irish Politicians did not finance your pretentious corporations with subsidies and tax breaks we would not not need a bailout from anybody ............Thinking is beyond your ability...........If you think you know what your talking about then tell us how much in subsidies and tax breaks did your pretentious corporations receive from the traitors of Ireland over the decades.
Murph46 | Jun 04, 2012, 11:51 AM EDT
LoyalCitizen your comments show precisely how out of touch you are,how many other corp exec's are jumping in line to bail out Ireland.I suppose they should listen to you and not accept him.Come forwaed to this century some time.
LoyalCitizen | Jun 04, 2012, 08:09 AM EDT
The ex boss of the most subsidised company in history wants to help the people who he kept in servitude.............With his sort of help Ireland does not need enemies.