Mr Tom Montgomery is one of Northern Ireland's most prominent technology entrepreneurs. He has founded three technology firms: Lagan Technologies, Kainos and, most recently, Amacis - a provider of software solutions which announced last week it would float on the Nasdaq next year to raise some £400 million sterling (€630 million).

"The software sector is particularly export focused but devolution and political stability is beneficial if only for a psychological factor. If you look at the past 100 years there were very good innovative companies but during the Troubles there was a culture of dependency on the public sector.

"But we're increasingly self-confident in Northern Ireland and that is very important. Indigenous companies are beginning to believe they can compete with the rest of world and the private sector is realising it is as good as anyone else.

"This amounts to a changing culture in Northern Ireland. We're just getting a critical mass in technology firms and things are starting to happen. More venture capital funding is available compared to when I set up Lagan Technologies in 1994. But there is a need for companies to continually reinvest and do what the US firms call "eating their young" (growth by acquisition).

"To be honest, in the long-term Northern Ireland will be no better or worse than any other western European country in attracting high technology investment. Strategy 2010 is a good objective as a 10-year plan but, in software, you have to plan for change every year.

"I believe there will be no difficulty in attracting companies in the high technology sector but providing the people to work in these industries will be the real challenge. The Northern Irish education system is fine, but you need to broaden the net and bring more people into the IT skills base."