Last month, Dublin investment firm Claret Capital purchased Washington D.C. St. Regis Hotel for $170m on behalf of "ultra high net worth individuals and families." Irish venture capital investment in 2007 will amount to about €200m.

Some of Thursday's headlines from Wednesday night's annual dinner of the Irish Venture Capital Association were certainly flattering. It seemed that a new dawn was on the horizon with a jump in annual Irish venture capital investment to €1.4bn coinciding with the forging of a world class knowledge economy, would at least snap at the heels of the surging overseas commercial property investment sector.

The figure of €1.4bn is for a five year period and overseas commercial property will remain as the investment of choice.

In the period 2001-2006, more than €40bn was invested by the Irish in commercial property compared with about €1bn going to venture capital investment.

According to Quarterly European Venture Capital Report from Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne, published last month, three deals took place in Ireland in the second quarter of 2007, compared to one deal in the second quarter and eight deals in the corresponding quarter in 2006.

€14.67m was invested in Irish companies during this period, compared to €4.24m in the previous quarter and €8.82 million in the corresponding quarter in 2006.

Good news is welcome when it is based on some firm foundations. The challenge of creating a "world-class knowledge" economy in six years will require more than the €3.8bn in State funds and thousands of publicly funded researchers . We can talk up prospects but consider that our top three publicly traded high-tech companies, all reported losses, in recent months. Talk is cheap!

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