Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have a good system in place for assessing skills. The high level group on skills forecasting works very closely with Irish and foreign owned companies in identifying skills required. For example, we have, through the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, committed to doubling the output of ICT graduates because IT is a key sector.

A US company relocating to Ireland that wishes to bring with it employees from the United States must apply for work permits for them in the normal way, as part of which process it is required to show the posts cannot be filled by people from within the European Union. The work permits process provides us with information on the areas in which there are skills bottlenecks. We have a very good window to where the skills needs are. To be fair, the education system is seeking to respond by way of initiatives such as Springboard and Momentum, as well as the ICT initiative and the apprenticeship review launched earlier this week which provides an opportunity for businesses to identify areas where a new two-year apprenticeship could be developed. We have a good window to the challenges encountered in this area.

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