Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no point in us pretending about the impact the skills shortages will have across all sectors of the economy. We have rapid growth, our GDP has increased and our debt ratios have dropped dramatically but underneath all the positive news, are the alarm bells beginning to ring due to the drop in competitiveness?

If we do not arrest that particular issue, we will have the same difficulties and challenges facing the country in a few years as we had previously. The reason I say that is it takes time to train people. It takes time to upskill people. It takes time to attract people back into the economy.

We no longer have the pool of labour available to us from the eastern European states that we had on the previous occasion we had a major expansion in the economy because their economies have converged more with the rest of Europe in terms of growth and we will have skills shortages. It is evident already. In the areas of agriculture, hospitality and transport, we already have massive shortages and the construction sector is now beginning to bite severely. Beyond that, in the trades and the higher skills, we also will have considerable difficulties.

The idea that the expert group for future skills needs would look at a five-year horizon is baffling when it takes at least four to five years for an engineer to qualify and three-to-four years for a tradesperson to be fully qualified. We must look beyond that short timeframe.

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