Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I have circulated a script, I will not go through it religiously. I welcome the report of the committee, and its publication is very timely and apt. The ICT sector is a source of significant competitive advantage and one of continuing opportunity for Ireland. We have focused on that, especially in our Action Plan for Jobs 2012, sections of which are devoted specifically to the opportunities in cloud computing, ICT generally and digital games. We also recognise that we are seeing increasingly the convergence of technologies, with ICT becoming a major factor in opportunities emerging in other sectors such as the pharmaceutical sector and so on. We have developed a very significant cluster in Ireland of IDA companies.

I have listed in the appendix some of the announcements in recent times. In total the sector has 82,000 employed. Of those, approximately 10,000 are from indigenous companies. Overall, the sector represents approximately 35% of exports and it is growing. There was 5% employment growth last year and we have every reason to be optimistic for the future in this sector. The development of the indigenous software sector is truly remarkable and, increasingly, as we seek to open up new markets, it is ICT software companies that are forging the way.

In terms of delivering our ambition for growth in the sector, the committee will understand that it takes a wide range of policy initiatives to develop what might be called a successful ecosystem for the development of ICT in all its dimensions. We are seeking in our work to deepen the involvement of multinationals in the economy, in particular attracting them to invest in their research and development capability in this country. We are building collaboration with the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, in particular through the technology centres that are jointly funded by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland and are located in the higher education institutes. There are connections into those. Through Science Foundation Ireland we are significantly investing approximately 40% of its total funding in building centres of excellence in the ICT area generally. We are trying to build an environment where start-ups in the ICT sector can get access to seed and venture capital.

We are building an environment that is supportive of the growth of this sector, but a key element of the overall strategy is one the committee has identified, namely, the availability of the necessary skills. There is a worldwide scarcity of skills in this area. This country remains No. 1 in the world rankings for skills availability. Despite the fact that we have identified skills shortages, this is an area where we retain high skills availability. In part, that is due to our domestic education policy and also to the policy in respect of work permits and the ability to bring people in to work successfully in the Irish environment.

We have done work on the skills gap. The expert group on future skills needs has identified a significant skills gap of which we must be conscious. It is at graduate level and involves ICT professionals with two to eight years’ experience and those with experience in excess of eight years. We must ensure companies that are growing can get access to the skills in those various categories. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, will go into considerable detail on the initiatives he is taking to develop the educational flow into the sector, but the education system cannot deliver straight away in terms of filling gaps where several years of experience are required, and there is a need for other policy instruments to fill the gap.

I have outlined also in the paper I circulated a number of initiatives that are funded by the Department that are across the entire area of promoting skills. They supplement the work done by the Minister of Education and Skills. The Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, plays a pivotal role between the two Departments in that he has responsibility for the research dimension in my Department but he also has an overall roving responsibility in respect of the development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM. Initiatives are in place such as the discover science and engineering programme, which we fund, and smart futures. Science Foundation Ireland recently published its ambitious strategy up to 2020. Part of that is to increase the throughput of people who come through our research centres who get placed in industry. SFI is seeking to increase that from the 22% it was at in 2010 - it is now up to 30% - to 50% so that not only are we doing excellent research in those centres but also we are bringing people with excellence and experience into our companies.

Enterprise Ireland has taken an initiative, It’s Happening Here, which supports SMEs and indigenous companies which feel at something of a disadvantage in competing with the big brand names. By collaborating together they can deliver the message that exciting work is happening in the Irish IT sector that is challenging and attractive for people with skills.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, will go into the detail of the educational aspect where he has radically expanded the throughput, but there is also a need to supplement the skills we can develop ourselves. That is where the employment regime comes into play. We must recognise that because those skills are in short supply globally, we must develop a system of work permits that is responsive and allows employers who identify needs to fill them rapidly where those skills are justifiable. We have had a traditional work permit regime in this country. In the recession the use of work permits has declined dramatically because there is a higher level of unemployment, but we also recognise that people with ICT skills are pivotal. Research in the United States suggests that one such key person with experience has a knock-on effect on the employment of five people in the wider economy. We need people with pivotal skills to develop the sector successfully.

We have a considerable number of ICT applications getting through in our work permits regime. A total of 1,200 applications were granted in 2011 and only 6% were refused. Increasingly, one will see that the proportion of green cards and work permits issued are in the ICT area. In 2009 it was 31% of green cards issued, but to date in 2012, it is 63%. Increasingly, the type of people who are getting permits are those of high skill who are relevant to the development of the sector.

We also recognise that there is scope for considerable improvement in the work permits regime. Officials from the Department are present who have been working on streamlining the process. There is a lack of clear understanding among employers on how the system works. In addition, procedures that grew up over time are too bureaucratic. We believe we can dramatically reduce the processing time and have done so already. We can also make the system more user-friendly in order that, for example, green cards, which have traditionally been used for the employment of ICT professionals only in the ICT sector, could be extended to other sectors. The eligibility should be wider. We are ambitious to increase the supply. We reckon that by making the changes we propose, we should increase the work permits granted in 2013 by approximately 700. If members want details of the types of changes involved, we can go through them.

We also have new legislation on employment permits coming through. It is on the Government’s A list. I intend to bring it forward as soon as possible. That will give additional legal instruments to reform and improve the permits system further. We will have a robust scheme that will be highly competitive in this area.

It is clear we must balance the issue of permits with the provision of employment opportunities for Irish graduates. That is a balance we must strike in implementing the regime. The term used in the committee’s report is an "IT visa". Our system has been based on employers identifying vacancies and then having the freedom to recruit.

Under existing arrangements, companies being supported by IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland would have a much quicker route to getting permits processed. We know that many of the boxes that must be ticked have been ticked already as a result of the support of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland.

The committee has raised the potential of an IT visa which would not be based on vacancies but would allow anyone with particular types of qualification to come to Ireland and search for a job here. That is what is commonly regarded as an IT visa. That is a different approach but we are exploring the merits of such a scheme. We are in discussion with the Department of Justice and Equality to examine ways in which our regimes could be improved to facilitate the hiring of overseas workers and the possibility of permitting highly skilled candidates to conduct job searches in Ireland in advance of applying for a work permit. That would empower prospective highly skilled employees to actively consider Ireland as a potential location for employment but we must be sure that does not become open to abuse. Careful consideration is required before we sign off on that more open-ended process which is not related to vacancies. One can understand the concern that someone who was employed in a sector that had nothing to do with the alleged specialism could come here presenting as an IT specialist. There are concerns in that regard that we would need to tease out.

This is a sector of immense opportunity for us. The committee has rightly identified it as an area in which, as a people, we must build our human capital, but we must also be willing to supplement that human capital through visas or work permits where appropriate. That is the policy we are adopting - namely, to take the two approaches simultaneously.