{"id":35378,"date":"2025-09-21T23:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/35378\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T23:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:35:07","slug":"ibec-group-technology-ireland-calls-for-investment-in-ai-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/35378\/","title":{"rendered":"Ibec group Technology Ireland calls for investment in AI skills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ibec group Technology Ireland has called for a large-scale investment in worker skills and training in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/artificial-intelligence-ai_topic-5237737.html\">AI (artificial intelligence)<\/a> capabilities, as well as an enhancement and simplification of the research and development (R&amp;D) tax credit in the budget.<\/p>\n<p>In its <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/budget-2026_topic-5302154.html\">pre-budget submission<\/a> to the Government, the organisation called for a large-scale investment, through the National Training Fund, to equip workers with advanced digital and AI capabilities, \u201censuring a just and competitive transition to an AI-enabled economy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It urges the \u201cdecisive investment\u201d in training programmes that respond to real-time industry needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/business\/companies\/arid-41707004.html\">Technology Ireland director Una Fitzpatrick<\/a> said the next five years will be \u201cpivotal for Ireland and the global economy\u201d, adding that investment in skills and innovation is a \u201cnational imperative\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe National Training Fund is employers\u2019 money, collected to invest directly in workforce transformation. Using it strategically is key to unlocking Ireland\u2019s AI-enabled future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ms Fitzpatrick said in recent years, the National Training Fund has accumulated a significant surplus \u201cwhile many sectors of the economy continue to report critical skills shortages and urgent demands for workforce transformation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            These surpluses represent a missed opportunity to strengthen Ireland\u2019s labour force at a time when agility and lifelong learning are more important than ever.\u00a0\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The group is calling on the Government to enhance and simplify access to the R&amp;D tax credit which, it said, would \u201csignificantly enhance the usability and impact of the credit\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Technology Ireland is also calling for a simplification of regulations and for the Government to avoid \u201cgold-plating\u201d EU regulations when transposing them into national law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It said the \u201capproach taken by Government and regulators over the past few years has created an overly burdensome landscape for business\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The group also welcomed the launch of the Silicon Ireland strategy, and called for \u201cswift implementation of its recommendations and the formation of a dedicated steering committee\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Launched in May, the Silicon Island strategy is designed to create high-value jobs, secure long-term investment, as well as \u201ccement Ireland\u2019s role as a critical player in Europe\u2019s semiconductor future\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ibec group Technology Ireland has called for a large-scale investment in worker skills and training in AI (artificial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2334,5244,61,60,43,80],"class_list":["post-35378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-budget-2026","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}