Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Mooney and concur with the points he made. Leaders of enterprises who have pointed out particular skills shortages consistently argue that to be an effective member of their teams in centres such as those operated by PayPal, TalkTalk and Hewlett Packard in my home city of Galway, employees must have a high level of proficiency and fluency in a foreign language. They must attain a level close to that of a native speaker because the call centres located here deal with French, German and Italian natives. A considerable period of study and practice in the language in question is required to acquire this level of proficiency. However, the Deputy is correct that a number of people living abroad, including my sister who has been living in Germany for the past five years, have such proficiency and one would hope that many of them will return home to avail of the opportunities we have been discussing.