Mr. Barry O'Brien:

I will take a minute to give the perspective of IBM on this as the company has supported FIT for many years. I am not sure how familiar the committee members are with the story of IBM in Ireland. We invested in a campus facility in Mulhuddart in the mid-1990s, employing thousands of people in three large manufacturing operations. For a variety of reasons, each of these manufacturing operations left Ireland over the years. However, today IBM employs more people in Ireland and at higher skill levels than ever before - this was achieved by upskilling the workforce and attracting people with the right skills. There is no one answer to how IBM became a success in Ireland - it was a mixture of hiring local talent, growing our own talent through a variety of programmes, attracting people with the right skills from outside Ireland and so on. The work presented by FIT today sends the message that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to these things. There is much talk of the need for top graduates and people with PhDs in the skills debate - we have also been guilty of emphasising this, partially because we have a research activity and a strong demand for the highest level skills.

That is too simple a story.

The good news is that it does not represent the full level of demand. As Mr. Davitt set out, there is demand at levels 5 and 6. As we know, it does not suit everybody to go through the traditional route of doing the leaving certificate, spending a few years in college and then looking for a job. The ICT associate professional programme outlined today is a very strong addition to the mix of pathways that exist for people, as are Springboard, MOMENTUM and some of the other programmes mentioned. From the perspective of a company which needs to attract the greatest level of skills we can, the greater the variety of paths open to people the better. Part of the challenge for the industry, FIT and the committee is to communicate this message more broadly.

The programme which FIT will shortly launch will be a great addition to the Irish ecosystem and I commend Mr. Davitt and Mr. Ryan on their work on bringing the issue to the fore. Their report is unique in the way it has gone from the ground up and shown the vacancies that exist. While a figure such as 7,000 raises some eyebrows, it does not suggest the same 7,000 jobs have been going unfilled for months and we have a huge problem. Rather, it is a snapshot of the level of demand. While I would not want to say everything is fine and we should not worry, I would see the positive side as Mr. Sweetman outlined earlier. The vacancies are rolling and the overall employment level is growing. From IBM's perspective, while we always want more skills, the lack of them has not stopped us from doing anything or been a blocker for us, and that is good. I hope the programme will be a great success and we are very happy to support it at the pilot stage.