American Chamber of Commerce chief warns that US companies may bypass Ireland
The new President of the American Chamber of Commerce has today warned that US companies will bypass Ireland if education standards continue to slip.
The US Chamber has raised concerns after six out of seven Irish universities fell in the world rankings last year.
Peter O'Neill, who is also the managing director of IBM in Ireland, believes that some Irish universities and colleges may need to merge to supply better educated graduates to industry.
"As recently as last October we received the very unwelcome news that six of our seven universities had fallen in the world rankings as compiled by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings," he said.
"Both TCD and UCD have dropped out of the top 100 while UCC and NUI Galway are no longer in the top 300. Dublin City University and DIT are now out of the top 400. This is a very worrying trend and the team which put together the rankings attributes it mainly to funding cuts.
"This cannot be allowed to continue.
"Already, some of our member firms in the key Digital, ICT, life sciences, and financial services areas are reporting difficulties in hiring suitable candidates. This is borne out by a recent study carried out by Forfas which showed that 55% of the demand for ICT professionals in Ireland is being met by inward migration.
"These companies are in Ireland because they are highly mobile and were attracted here by our unique combination of talent, tax, a pro-business environment and our position as the only English speaking member of the Eurozone, among other reasons.
"If they can’t find suitable talent here Ireland will not be considered for future investments and, worse still, the existing operations may choose to move on to a competitor country where they can find qualified staff."
