Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 December 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Brexit and Readiness of Businesses, Employees and Communities: Discussion

Mr. John James O'Hara:

Joined-up thinking is the main thing for the projects that we are developing under Industry 4.0. It brings real employment to the area. We were talking with the Taoiseach about this. It is a matter of looking outside the box and bringing industry and colleges together, and giving them a real direction. In every programme that we write, we write a youth programme with it. We write that from seven to 17. Kids need to learn about innovation and technology. It is not just for the older age group. We have done different tests here, including bringing a kid and a parent together to build a robot. We have to teach kids at a younger age what innovation, research and development are, and that is where our advances will be.