David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the witnesses. I also commend Senator Clune on her work in this area on what is now, I suppose, an all-party report on this issue. I thank Senator Clune for her contribution and lead on the issue.

To put the matter in context, between quarter one of 2007 and quarter one of 2012, the economy of the State lost in excess of 300,000 jobs. That is where we need look. Sometimes we can look at issues as a panacea and, while obviously important, they are not a panacea. Having said that, the information and communications technology industry gained 9,200 jobs over that period and now employs more than 75,000. As a sector, it is still the second smallest employment sector and employs 4.2% of all employees. When one sets that against agriculture, forestry and fishing, where 27,000 jobs have been lost, it provides the context.

We all would accept that there is a need to grow all sectors of the economy and to tackle structural employment and growing levels of unemployment. No doubt long-term unemployment is a big issue. Some 60% of those unemployed have been out of work for over a year. It strikes me that most of the focus, at least from the bodies, is on degree level and research and development. That is okay, but not all jobs in the agrifood sector or even the ICT sector require degree level intervention. We need to look at re-skilling and the unemployed. The committee visited Waterford a couple of days ago and heard from the city enterprise board about FETAC level courses, for example, in the horticulture sector. We need to look at a swathe of persons who are long-term unemployed, who have skills and in whose case it is merely about re-skilling, and not necessarily about degrees.

I refer to the all-island potential here as well. It is obvious the skills within the ICT language sector are highly mobile. There is obviously an all-island labour market because we are an island, but there is limited funding to all third level institutions across the island. What steps are the third level institutions in the State taking to develop all-island approaches to skills shortages in both jurisdictions to ensure we make best use of resources?

On early development of language and ICT skills, the institutions of technology submissions look at the development of skills within second level. This is something on which we spoke to Senator Clune in the formulation of her report. What is the role of the third level sector in supporting teaching skills in curriculum development within primary and second school? When one looks at ICT, STEM and language skills developments, I am somebody who started off very young with computers. I started off with the Commodore 64 and worked my way up, I assume, the same as many others in this room.

Dr. Murphy referred to CoderDojo, which is a very good concept. We would like to see ICT as a curriculum issue at second level.

To put the issue in a wider context, certain regions of the State - the south east being a good example - were heavily dependent on manufacturing over a period of 30 to 40 years. There was little incentive for a young person growing up 30 years ago to remain in school or continue to college because he or she could, for example, get a job in Waterford Crystal or the foundry. There was little focus on developing opportunities in terms of skills and training. That needs to change because we are in a completely different space and we have to start in primary and secondary schools. I am a great believer in innovation, creative thinking and thinking outside the box. Third level is important but students at primary and second levels have to be given the space and encouragement to get there. How can the third level sector assist in making that a reality?