So the European finance ministers are getting their very own tablets for their meeting in Dublin Castle this month (12-13 April). This is being touted as the first paperless EcoFin meeting. Welcome to our ‘innovation island’.
Lucky ministers. When they heard the news, they must have felt a frisson of excitement at the prospect of getting their hands, however temporarily, on a Samsung Galaxy or an Apple iPad. Who wouldn’t?
Ah yes, they might have been expecting one of those two because they are the bestselling and most popular tablets on the market. But of course they forgot that the meeting is in Ireland and, as a result, it is a golden opportunity to showcase the best of Irish technology. And this is innovation island after all.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan described the meeting as "a high profile opportunity for us to demonstrate that the Irish Presidency is embracing new technology and supporting the Digital Agenda". Good for him.
So, what are ministers getting instead of a Galaxy or an iPad? As many as 76 Dell Latitude 10 tablets running Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS.
Not very Irish, you might think, but minister Noonan was quick to point out that Dell and Microsoft are based in Ireland and are "key drivers of jobs, growth and innovation in Ireland". He didn’t mention it but the presence of both companies in Ireland is testament to its low corporate tax rate (another success for this innovation island).
And Noonan is definitely being innovative in his choice given that Windows 8 and the Dell Latitude 10 are much newer players in the tablet space than the fuddy-duddy Samsung Galaxy/Android and Apple iPad/iOS combinations. Fair play to Ireland for focusing on new technology instead of sticking with the tablet ‘establishment’.
For those EcoFin ministers anxious that Ireland should be choosing to spend its money on expensive tablets (the Latitudes retail for €699) when the country is on its uppers, the good news is that the tablets will be returned to Dell after the meeting. So that should help put their minds at ease.
Personally, though, I’m not sure I’d want the finance minister of my country going into a meeting with other European finance ministers armed with a tablet provided by somebody else. Isn’t the first thing they tell you about USB sticks, for example, to be careful if they’re given to you by somebody else?
The good thing about old-fashioned paper notes is they’re not easy for someone to intercept (unless you fold them up into an airplane and throw them) or to read while you’re writing them (unless Austria or Finland is looking over your shoulder). This is especially true if your handwriting is as bad as mine.
Anyway, I’m sure the security provided by the Department of Finance is state of the art, so I hope all the finance ministers are happy with it. I’d hate for them to have to have a pre-meeting, without the tablets, to try and thrash out an agreed security level and decide whether they should have the tablets at all. Given their past performance on much weightier matters concerning the economic situation in Europe, I’d be a little bit sceptical anyone would get the tablets.
It would be awful if they ended up being fobbed off with promises of tablets at a later date or told they can’t have them at all because not all the finance ministers had agreed they should use them in the first place. Wouldn’t it?
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