Open Skies brings needed link to technology heartland

Net Results: There will have been many Irish sighs of relief coming from Silicon Valley last Friday as Aer Lingus's firm intentions to put a direct flight into the region were announced jointly in San Francisco by the city's mayor, Gavin Newsom, and Minister for Transport Martin Cullen.

Mr Cullen was the Minister assigned to the onerous task of representing Ireland on its national holiday in one of the world's most beautiful cities (okay, I will happily admit I am biased, having grown up near as well as lived in The City, as everyone in the Bay Area refers to it).

Of course, the new route hinges to some degree on whether the Open Skies agreement is approved on both sides of the Atlantic, but that seems to be only a "kind of" situation, as the Taoiseach made clear during the same week. Speaking in Washington DC, he noted that Ireland would pursue a separate agreement for increased flights to and from the US, if the EU and US cannot reach a joint agreement.

The powers that be (at least this side of the general election) seem confident enough that the route will go ahead to have put Mr Cullen at a podium for the announcement. Neither was Newsom offering any ifs or buts on the service. Instead, he waxed lyrical about the 11 per cent of San Francisco's population that claimed Irish descent. Indeed it is the only city west of Chicago with a strong sense of Irish heritage and a large group of both Irish immigrants and immediate, first and second generation Irish residents, most of whom live either in the city's Sunset District towards the sea, or among "the Avenues", in recent years infiltrated by Asian immigrants and shops but still the bastion of San Francisco's Irish pubs. The Irish generations go back further, too; as in other Irish-American strongholds such as Boston, Chicago and New York, Irish names have peppered the police and fire services roll-calls for more than a century.

All the stuff of the perfect St Patrick's Day announcement for the city's rather glamorous mayor, currently the beau of a Hollywood actress (not since former California governor Jerry Brown went out with Linda Ronstadt has northern California offered up such an intriguing blend of entertainment and politics).

But the real celebrating will be in the somewhat less alluring surrounds of Government Buildings, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland offices, and in numerous small company offices. For a long, long time, government and the promoters of Ireland and Irish business abroad have known that, without a direct link to Silicon Valley, the tech stronghold would always be at one remove, making it distinctly less attractive for Irish companies to base in the Valley, and for Valley companies to consider an Irish base.

Certain companies on both sides have forged ahead anyway, but more than one Irish technology company has told me that it chose Boston over the Bay Area primarily because of the unbearable thought of always having to endure at least two flights to get there. That routing adds up to half a day of travel for the poor punter, who is forced to do the early-morning route to London or Amsterdam, then on to San Francisco, or Dublin to the east coast or Chicago or LA and a transfer to San José or San Francisco that gets you in when you are truly exhausted, in the wee hours Irish time.

To date there has, rather surprisingly to me, been a fairly weak Irish presence in the Valley. Though costs undoubtedly play a factor (some of the most expensive real estate and office space in the US), I would venture that transport has been at least as daunting.

Now, it will be a walk-on in Dublin, walk-off in the Bay Area run that is guaranteed to boost business links between the regions and will greatly help the IDA sell Ireland from its Silicon Valley offices, as well as help Enterprise Ireland encourage young Irish companies to consider basing in the region, perhaps in its incubation centre.

When the San José Dublin Sister City group of officials came over from San José during the summer, many of them spoke of how a direct flight would greatly encourage business links and fresh collaborations. For example, the biomedical industry would be very interested in forging links with Irish companies and having Irish companies consider the dedicated incubation facilities offered to this sector in the Valley.

Of course, the San José group had dearly wanted the flight to come into San José Mineta International Airport, a more low-key and perhaps even convenient airport which also lobbied hard for Aer Lingus's attention. The City by the Bay won out in the end. But I expect Ireland Inc will win as well with this long-needed direct link to technology's heartland.