Vol. 495 No. 6
95 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the significance of the decision by a company (details supplied) to downgrade its Irish operation and move its software development capacity to India; the current employment in software development here; the way in which it has grown over the past five years; and the projections for its growth over the next five years. [20894/98]
The company concerned is an Irish subsidiary of a British software services company. It sells its products mainly in the Asian, African and the middle Eastern markets. The company has decided to undertake some of its software development work in India. No redundancies are envisaged in their Irish operations.
Employment has increased in the software sector from 9,000 five years ago to about 20,000 this year. Further significant growth is expected over the next five years. The government has made significant commitments to facilitate this growth by providing substantial resources to increase the output of software graduates. In particular, I refer the Deputy to the introduction of the £250M Education Technology Investment Fund and the establishment of the business education and training partnership. I would also refer to the increased output of FÁS software and electronics courses. This will more than treble the numbers completing training on these FÁS courses over a three year period.
I am confident the result of the measures introduced will be to enhance Ireland's attraction as a location for further software activity.
