Call to bolster skills base

WE need a far higher quality labour force and far higher use technology will determine where Irish manufacturing will be in 10 years time, a report published yesterday said.

Friends First’s Jim Power added that Irish manufacturing, domestic and international, was under severe pressure and rising costs and increasing competition from Eastern Europe, China and India, were threatening the manufacturing base.

He also said that we need to target “immigration policy” to bring in people with high skills.