Study In Ireland: TUS President Calls On Next Government To Prepare ‘Grand Vision’ For 2050

While calling Ireland's next government to make a Grand Vision for 2050, Professor Vincent Cunnane, President of TUS also raised many concerns due to technological advancements and a global climate of institutional distrust.

President of The Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Professor Vincent Cunnane requested the next Ireland government to address the pressing issues of the current time and to create a ‘Grand Vision’ For 2050 despite many concerns about the future.

While speaking at the Limerick Chamber President’s Dinner, Professor Vincent Cunnane said that the future should be better for the upcoming generations and the country must now look beyond the economic cycle.

Professor Cunnane said, “I believe that we need a grand vision for Ireland in 2050, articulated through a national forum that will bring together the varied strands of thought that we as a people have, to achieve the ambitions, address the fears, hear the concerns and voice the hopes, all with the aim of realising a greater goal. To me, that forum is necessary in this time of discord.”

Grand Vision Should Be Clear Across Sectors

He said that the grand vision should have clear ideas to drive excellence across sectors from industrial strategy to education, social policy and infrastructure.

“We have seen the transformative power of the collective vision, and we need to harness that power just as the Shannon was harnessed. I was in India recently and I was struck that everywhere I went, I heard of a vision for India to be a fully developed nation by 2047, with nobody left behind. I started to think, well, where will we be in 2047? Where will we be in 2050? What do we want to achieve together? I should be able to tell my grandchildren where we are going as a nation, just as a century ago, people were able to point up the river Shannon and see a modern nation, about to become electrified and mobilised. So a century on, what are we going to do? What mobilises us today in a way that will affect the lives of my grandchildren? What will we build on the shoulders of the giants who went before us?" he said.

TUS President Raises Concerns

He also talked about many challenges of the current time, including the impact of artificial intelligence and social media on future generations, the global environment of institutional distrust and other political challenges.

He said, “We have seen the corrosive power of disinformation, the vacuum of inequality, the pain of isolation, all clearly at play in the politics of larger nations and directing their course. It seems to me that we are in a period where the temptation is to pretend that it’s business as usual and things will just blow over, but where in fact, we need to act. AI will influence my grandchildren’s lives in ways that we can scarcely conceive today, and it is unlikely that the climate that we take for granted will be the one that they will live through over the course of their lifetimes. This may only become apparent with the benefit of time, but I think that the ultimate issue at hand is something about where we are going as a nation entering our second century of independence. We need to get beyond thinking just in economic cycles, keeping our heads down and ploughing on. We need to look up and articulate who we are and where we are going.”

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