THE MANAGING director of a Co Monaghan technology firm has said he may be forced to outsource jobs as the company expands because of the lack of required skills among the Irish workforce.

Liam Murray of Cased Dimensions, a software development company and Microsoft Alliance Partner, said he had been frustrated in his attempts to find staff with the system centre training the firm requires.

Mr Murray said advertisements for jobs with the company had attracted a poor response and that appeals to Fás to provide relevant training in the northeast region had not been successful.

He raised the issue with Taoiseach Brian Cowen when he visited the company in Monaghan last month. A spokeswoman for Mr Cowen said he was surprised to hear of the difficulties Mr Murray was experiencing and that he had raised the issue with Fás.

Cased Dimensions currently employs 22 people internationally and Mr Murray said the added work stemming from its relationship with Microsoft could create up to 50 new positions over the next year. It develops software for Microsoft such as the SLA Management Pack which enables users to automate and monitor their service desk.

Mr Murray said there was a shortage of joined-up thinking in the education system and that people were leaving Fás and third level with qualifications that left them with few prospects of work.

Ray Kelly, Fás director for the northeast region, said the issues cited by Cased Dimensions had not fallen on deaf ears and the agency was seeking to establish a programme that could provide the relevant skills.

However, Mr Kelly said Fás had to follow strict procurement policies, could not start a scheme to benefit a single employer and needed to ensure such a programme would be able to benefit a broad range of its clients. He said a 20-week training course would not necessarily provide the majority of its unemployed clients with the range of skills required.

“You’re not going to get someone off the streets to do a course and walk into the jobs Liam Murray is talking about,” he said. “We’d be looking for unemployed computer science graduates or people who are very technically aware to take part.”

Mr Kelly said the agency saw an opportunity to provide new skills and hoped to develop sequential courses to build people up over time. Fás has contacted firms providing training in the disciplines and Mr Kelly is hopeful a pilot Microsoft System Centre training programme would commence in the northeast in January.

“Hopefully Liam Murray and his company will be able to benefit from it and they might have opportunities for those who take part,” he said.