Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I had a joint meeting with the Minister for Education and Skills only recently to discuss specifically education and training skills gaps. He is bringing forward proposals to increase the graduate intake into areas with skills gaps, while under the Springboard initiative he wants to switch people with different skills into these areas.

We are very conscious of the opportunity for networking in areas like digital media and where there is a convergence of technologies. Many of the research and development initiatives that have been developed by the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, build on the fact that we have collaboration between multinationals, SMEs and the academic community. Many of these digital gaming companies have been spun out from research activities in the higher education institutes, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, SFI. There is very fruitful investment in this area, with good spin-offs.

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