Mr. Kevin Daly:

Mr. Donohoe has stolen my thunder on the ICT piece. He has made a good point about looking at occupations rather than sectors. The shortages will appear in occupations and people are quite flexible going across sectors if they have the skills. ICT is number one. The report we will be producing in the next couple of weeks shows that is a big problem and it is getting worse.

I would not say sectors are experiencing shortages but certain occupations within sectors are. For example, in construction, it is not the ones one might expect. The shortages are in niche trades like shuttering carpenters or scaffolders. There is an excellent report by the SOLAS labour market research unit called the national skills bulletin, which is due out very soon. It has top-level analysis on where shortages are appearing in these very niche type of skills. I will be looking at that when it comes out.

Another niche area of skill shortage is in the finance area, particularly among those with deep analytical skills who can apply those with financial skills. The hospitality area is one about which I am sure the committee has heard about, including the loss of chefs and how the employment permit system has reacted to this. At this stage of the economic cycle, I am aware that we are down to 5.5%, but we are not seeing widespread shortages, apart from in ICT which is niche. As the economy recovers it will become more prevalent and will involve a greater number of skills.

The last question was on whether shortages are impacting on investment. We are competing with other European countries for our foreign investment and many of them are experiencing the same shortages as we are. I cannot answer the question definitively but it is not something the IDA has raised with us as being a key factor in losing investments. Ireland is quite an attractive country to come to because we are English-speaking and many people around the globe learn English as a second language so Ireland is an attractive destination for migrants.