Mr. Frank Ryan:

With regard to the cost base, we are a developed economy now as opposed to a developing economy. In a developing economy, the cost base would be tracked tightly while in a developed economy such as Ireland's innovation needs to be tracked because overseas buyers look at Ireland as a source of sophisticated products and services. In the past, they would look to Germany, the UK, US, Japan and Switzerland for such products but Ireland is now on that list and, therefore, the companies making export gains worldwide are intellectual property, IP, rich, highly innovative and dedicated to active research and development. Innovation is making the difference in the numbers and the capability of the companies. We are concerned about the cost base, particularly in manufacturing. One of the things that happened in 2012 was our manufacturing base remained steady and we are keenly focused on that in the context of the lean manufacturing initiative on which we are working with our companies. There is ground to be made up. If a company is not efficient at home, it will not be efficient overseas. We have to address efficiencies in the plants and we have continued to work with our companies on the lean manufacturing approach.

In terms of the skills gaps, we would have exactly the same pressures IDA Ireland has in relation to the skills. We would have vacancies currently in relation to computer science graduates, particularly software people who have five to eight years' experience. We would have gaps in relation to semiconductor design engineers and we would have perhaps some gaps on the engineering side. Perhaps it is a nice kind of problem to have to some extent, but what we have done in Enterprise Ireland is that we are setting up this year - at the start of it - a small skills unit within Enterprise Ireland to focus on the skill needs of our clients. We are not in a position whereby we are supporting companies - we are actually financially supporting vacancies in concept as opposed to jobs. We want the jobs to be filled when people get approval for jobs.

We are working closely with the Department of Education and Skills. There has been a very good reaction from that Department in relation to the conversion courses for people who had considerable skills in the construction sector - architects, engineers and quantity surveyors. They tend to be very good at maths and good at maths is the key discipline required to transfer successfully into a career in computer science. The first of those people are now coming off that - I think Springboard is the name of that programme. The reaction back from our clients to date is very positive in relation to the quality. Our view of that is: why would it not be? These people are very qualified and very well experienced. They are experienced in business and experienced in life as well because they are not graduates just coming out of university - they have been around for a while, both overseas and at home, and therefore they can add value to the companies concerned. However, it is an area of focus for us. It is an area where we continue to liaise with IDA Ireland, with our parent Department and with the Department of Education and Skills.