Mr. Brendan Flood:

I will separate the education from the language side. In 2013 Enterprise Ireland established a dedicated client skills unit to collaborate with the Department and with Government agencies about specific skills gaps faced by Irish companies in the short and long term. The domestic supply of foreign language skills is something that should be acted upon, not just in relation to Europe but also in the markets we are talking about. Foreign language capability and cultural awareness, as suggested by the committee, are essential for enterprises to compete in an increasingly global market. Having language capabilities is a major boost to companies in achieving their export goals. It also offers them opportunities to diversify away from English speaking markets. While we do prefer the skill-set of language capability to be brought in to the companies, it can be met in the short-term - for the Asian markets - in different ways including recruitment, up-skilling employees, use of professional translators and interpreters and hiring native speaking channel partners or agents. There is no doubt the development of business, technical and professional language capabilities within companies will enable them to pursue opportunities that may arise in any of those markets.