The report of the review committee on post-secondary education and training of March 1999 concluded that the existing and planned investment in third level places would allow Ireland to meet the strategic objective of being well within the top quarter of OECD countries in relation to undergraduate provision for traditional school leavers. My Department has requested the Higher Education Authority, which has a statutory responsibility to monitor the demand for higher education, to keep this provision under review in the light of unanticipated skills demand, postgraduate needs and developments in competitor countries.
In response to the needs identified in the First Report of the expert group on future skills, measures have been put in place to address emerging skills needs in IT related areas. These include the allocation of £75 million for the provision of 5,400 IT related third level places, the provision of £6 million to facilitate the continuation of 1,500 places on postgraduate conversion courses in IT related areas and expansion of the accelerated technician programmes to include IT.