merrion street

Minister Ruairi Quinn and Minister Richard Bruton speaking with Edel Creeley, Managing Director of Trilogy Technologies at the launch of the plan

The Government today published its plan to fill 44,500 jobs for ICT professionals over the years to 2018.

An extra 1,250 ICT undergraduate places will be made available annually from 2014, as part of the Government’s drive to increase the level of highly skilled professionals domestically, aimed at ensuring that three quarters of job openings can be filled from the Irish education system by 2018.

There will also be a total of up to 2,000 work permits issued per year to ICT professionals with relevant skills in order to meet the demands of the industry, and there will be an increased focus on recent Irish emigrants and EEA nationals.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton and Education Minister Ruairí Quinn published the ICT Skills Action Plan 2014 at Trilogy Technologies, a growing Irish ICT company based in Dublin with a workforce of approximately 50 people.

Under the Plan, it is aimed to meet 74% of industry demands domestically for ICT professionals by 2018 – up from 45% in 2011 and 60% now.

Minister Quinn said:

I am delighted the hard work of Government, State Agencies and Industry through the first ICT Action Plan is paying off. When we launched the Plan in 2012, only 45% of the ICT skills demand was being met domestically from higher education programmes. This year the education system is expected to meet 60% of demand. But, we need to be more ambitious and that is why we have set a target of meeting almost three quarters of industry demands here at home by 2018.

Minister Bruton said:

We have set out the ambition of making Ireland the most attractive location in the world for ICT skills, and we are delivering on that through a combination of Irish educated people and talent from abroad. Through major changes, reforms already delivered and the new plan announced today, we can ensure that we continue to foster the growth of Irish companies and attract multinational companies in this area, and ultimately help deliver the jobs in Ireland that we so badly need.