The publication of correspondence between the Department of the Taoiseach and the organisers of Web Summit has raised awkward questions for the government.
The decision to relocate the event from Dublin to Lisbon next year was hugely disappointing for Ireland. Web Summit has come to be regarded as one of Europe’s major technology conferences, in the process helping to build Ireland’s reputation as a fast-developing technology hub.
The email correspondence, released by Paddy Cosgrave, the event’s co-founder, has increased pressure on the government to address its handling of the issue. It is now having to answer charges that it did not do nearly enough to keep the summit in Dublin.
There is a danger in drawing too many conclusions from the emails alone. There is the possibility that, regardless of the government’s efforts, Lisbon may well have proved a better option for the conference next year.
However, on the face of it, the correspondence does not appear to demonstrate a real urgency on the part of the government to ensure that the summit stayed in Dublin. Nor does it provide evidence to counter the charge that there was a lack of co-ordination in the government’s approach.
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Many government agencies were involved in dealing with the event’s organisers. We do not know whether there was one person, or office, who had the responsibility to drive the project and to pull together the strands to ensure that everything possible was being done to keep the event here.
Web Summit’s organisers believe that there was not a co-ordinated approach. In contrast, they say, other European countries were extremely proactive in offering a package of measures to attract them. They say that they were seeking clarity and assurances from the Irish government in relation to four key issues: wi-fi, prices of hotels, more frequent public transport and traffic management. Reading the responses of Mr Cosgrave in the correspondence, they clearly did not feel that these assurances were forthcoming.
The provision of wi-fi is surely a matter between Web Summit and its suppliers. However, that is not to say that the Department of Communications could not have done more to ensure that the problems encountered in previous years were addressed.
A comprehensive traffic management plan should have been a relatively straightforward task. If the event’s team were expecting one, why not give it to them, if for no other reason than to tick that box?
It is difficult to see what, if anything, the government could have done in relation to inflated hotel prices, given that these are private businesses operating in a free market. Some of the requests from the summit — such as road closures, dedicated shuttle buses, garda escorts for VIPs and more frequent public transportation — may also have been challenging to deliver. Perhaps the organisers were asking for too much, although they stress that some of their proposals were simply setting out ideal scenarios and that they were flexible as to what would have been achievable.
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For the government, understandably, there may have been concerns about setting precedents for other major conferences. However, the importance of Web Summit and the investment that comes with it — the event was estimated to be worth €37.5 million to Dublin’s economy last year — would suggest that everything within reason should have been done to reach an agreement with the organisers.
Did that happen? Or did the state, working on an assumption that the summit was going nowhere, neglect to address the issues? The emails at the very least provide grounds for the opposition to raise questions as to whether enough was done. The importance of this event to the Irish economy demands that the government answer those questions, urgently. So far, it has not done so.