Mr. Paul Sweetman:

As well as being on the board of Fast Track to IT, I also represent ICT Ireland, which is a representative group for all of the tech companies in Ireland. One of the key issues the Governing Council of ICI Ireland have asked us to work on is the skills agenda. Senator Quinn queried from where does one start to get people interested in IT. A significant level of work has been undertaken on policies and initiatives to get youth interested in careers in the technology sector. It has proved very successful and this is borne out in the metrics, with a 20% increase year on year over the past two years in applications through the CAO for tech-related courses. That is all very positive news, but today we are raising the issue of an associate professional model, which is an alternative. We have many people who are interested in getting involved in the tech sector. They understand its great potential yet there is only one option in terms of the route to get into this field. This is opening up another avenue in which many of the companies are competing within competing jurisdictions where this model is in place. It is about giving options to people in terms of the choices they are making about careers.

I wish to discuss the research and development issue raised by Senator Cullinane. We must be conscious of the trends in the industry. Companies who have been here for decades have fundamentally changed what they do over the years even though the name over the door remains the same. They have moved from physically packaging software to writing it. That change took place because of the comfort their headquarters enjoy due to the ability and capability of their workers here. We have witnessed that many companies who may have been involved in sales initially have made a dramatic move into research and development. They were ahead of the curve in all of the reports. We want to be in those anchor positions and retain the facilities here. There is a trend for companies to move towards research and development. The most important thing that we can do is to ensure that the skills are here for when they choose to make changes. I shall give two practical examples. Fujitsu Laboratories has chosen to hold its first event in Ireland this week. It is only the second time the company will hold such an event outside of its headquarters. It chose Ireland and shows that companies are moving into the research and development space.

Our association has based an initiative around the commercialisation of research at third level institutions and companies and will provide a matchmaking service. It has proved to be one of our most popular initiatives over the past two years and hundreds of companies are involved. It proves that there is an underlying trend for companies to move towards a research and development agenda. We must maximise our options and get people involved. One route is third level and another key route is the modern apprenticeship model proposed here.