Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 February 2013
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Job Creation Data
56. Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of jobs created by Industrial Development Agency Ireland that require foreign language skills at native speaker level over the past two years. [9064/13]
View answerIDA Ireland’s remit is to attract foreign direct investment to Ireland thereby creating employment opportunities in Ireland. IDA Ireland has indicated that, in some cases, the investment secured will have a need for native language speakers, due to the nature of the job/function while, in other cases, employees with high, but non-native, language proficiency will be needed, particularly where other highly sought after skills are also required, such as engineering and ICT. To underpin the overall development of the foreign owned multinational sector in Ireland, it is important that Ireland meets the requirements of its multinational client base for both native and non-native language skill requirements. Research undertaken by the Expert Group on Future Skills in 2010 identified skills shortages in niche areas such as telesales, which require fluency in foreign languages. However, statistics are not maintained in such a way as to track the language skills of employees in individual IDA supported companies.
IDA Ireland has explained that its client companies primarily use Ireland as a base to service the European and Asian markets. These companies understand the importance of proficiency in local market languages to compete and sustain growth in a market. Language skills are particularly important for sales, marketing and HR staff but increasingly, FDI companies are seeking employees with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and maths who also have a proficiency in more than one language. The importance of having the language skills necessary to drive enterprise trade and export sales has been recognised by Government and the 2013 Action Plan for Jobs, which will be published in the coming days, will address this particular challenge.
