Dr. Kara McGann:

Two issues arise in terms of the critical skills list. First, we are seeing a rapid expansion in certain sectors that would allow for skills to remain on the list for some time. For example, companies in the ICT sector are using the apprenticeship model but are still growing so rapidly that, as they worked out last year, even if every leaving certificate student did a computer science course, it would still not be enough to meet demand in four years' time. The demand outweighs what the system can produce. In some cases, skill needs cannot be met by the Irish population due to language issues. Companies need native speakers plus cloud computing skills or so on. Thus, languages remain on the critical skills list.