Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. The committee is interested in ICT skills and many of the institutes assisted in preparing a report for the committee on this area. The ICT action plan is welcome and is well regarded by industry. The conversion courses are doing very well and it is encouraging that Mr. Boland said these would expand. As Dr. Murphy said, those who take on these courses are very committed.

It is very positive. Certainly, the committee intends to keep that to the fore and examine it regularly.

The committee is looking at this area to gauge the interaction between industry and higher education. I accept there must be education in a broad sense as well as giving students the capability to think for themselves and perhaps change their career path as they go through life. When the expert group on future skills needs was before the committee to discuss ICT, it pointed to languages and the food sector. In the foreign language area, PayPal stated it could not get the graduate skills it needed in this country. The expert group stated we should have a foreign language policy across all education sectors. Does anybody care to comment on that? Would they agree? I accept that languages are difficult to extract but, none the less, it arises time and again that the lack of foreign languages among graduates is an important issue.

In the food and drink sector, we received a submission recently in which it was stated the author had to fly to Heathrow, take a room there and interview applicants because he could not get the necessary skills in this country. In 2009, the expert group to which I referred outlined in a report on the food and drink sector that the deficit in skills was in supply chain management, operative skills, commercial acumen and innovation - many of the types of skills mentioned today. In the report, the group called for the establishment of an inter-agency, third level institute and industry forum to discuss and address the ongoing skills, trading and development needs of the industry. Has that been put in place? There is much information from and engagement between those in industry, and that would help as well. There are others who have questions as well, but perhaps the witnesses would address those areas.