Job Creation Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 October 2013

Thursday, 10 October 2013

Questions (33)

Pearse Doherty

Question:

33. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of jobs that were promoted by the Industrial Development Agency that require foreign language skills to a fluent or native speaker level. [42583/13]

Written answers

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

The Forfás Annual Employment survey, which reports on job gains and losses in the enterprise development agencies does not track the language skills requirements of employees in individual companies nor their level of fluency in a foreign language.

Research undertaken by the Expert Group on Future Skills has identified foreign language skills as a key skill requirement for enterprise, trade and export performance, which includes the foreign owned multinational sector.

In some cases the requirement is for native language speakers, due to the nature of the job/function. In other cases, employees with high, but non-native, language proficiency are what is needed, particularly where other highly sought after skills are also required, such as engineering, ICT etc.

IDA Ireland client companies primarily use Ireland as a base to service the European and Asian markets. Ireland’s availability of a skilled labour force is one of the primary reasons cited by IDA Ireland client companies for establishing their operations in Ireland.