Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the areas of the economy which suffer from a skills deficit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12065/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The expert group on future skills needs, EGFSN, was set up by Government in 1997 to develop national strategies to tackle the issue of skills needs, manpower estimating and training for business and education in Ireland. The EGFSN has published many reports that have identified in a systematic way the skills needs of different sectors and advised on the actions needed to address them.

The expert group future skills needs made 227 specific recommendations between 1997 and March 2005 aimed at ensuring that Ireland's skills needs are met in a timely fashion. These recommendations spanned a number of sectors including ICT, engineering, life science and biotechnology, food processing, construction and finance. The expert group has also examined vertical skills issues, including soft skills, sales and marketing, management and most recently a language skills report which is about to be published. A recent report from the EGFSN which considered the impact of increasing the national expenditure on research and development in line with the Barcelona target, projected a requirement for an additional 8,000 researchers in the Irish economy over the period to 2010. The expert group has also pointed to the need to enhance innovation and sales capabilities as being critical for the future success of Irish exporting small and medium sized enterprises.

Substantial progress has been made on these recommendations including. There have been substantial increases in third level and training course places to address the supply shortages in ICT and life sciences. The promotion of careers in science, technology and engineering, SET, has been one of the key messages adopted by the expert group. SET skills will form the backbone of an innovation-driven, knowledge economy. The Government launched an integrated awareness campaign, discover science and engineering, in 2003 with a mandate to increase the interest in science and engineering at both primary and post-primary education, with a view to encouraging more students to pursue science and engineering studies and ultimately careers. In the current year it has a budget of €2 million. The need for basic information in relation to training provision has been addressed by the establishment of a comprehensive national trainer's database by FÁS.

Since its inception in 1997, the analysis and recommendations contained in the reports of the expert group on future skills needs have contributed to ensuring that no major impediment to economic progress has occurred as a result of failure to anticipate specific skills needs within the key sectors of the economy. The mandate of the EGFSM was expanded in 2004 to incorporate the role previously discharged by the National Training Advisory Council which was set up to advise on the strategy for enterprise training in Ireland. Apart from the action taken in the form of making recommendations and publishing reports, the expert group has also sought ways seeking to help form opinion by ensuring that the findings of its research become more widely known and are reflected in debate on future skills needs.