Sir, - As you point out in your editorial of August 25th, the provision of 650 additional information Technology places in public third-level institutions is patently insufficient to fill the demand from the national student body for courses in computing disciplines. It is also far short of the number required as identified by the IDA, Forbairt and others to fill the IT skills gap so much in the news.It is clear that the Leaving Certificate students are very aware of the problem and opportunity created by the skills gap. They have reacted extremely rapidly to the situation by applying for places on IT courses - much more rapidly, in fact, than the mechanisms of State and State-funded institutions can cope with.With the UK option closing off, or at least starting to cost significantly, the Minister needs to look urgently at other options. The private third-level colleges have several excellent, State-approved programmes in place which can be expanded rapidly to pick up the slack. Indeed, several colleges have bid in the recent tendering process to fill the skills gap but have yet to receive a response from the Minister.What is needed now is to subvent disappointed students from the CAO round of offers to allow them to attend these equivalent courses in the private sector, rather than diverting Irish taxpayers monies to Britain or, worse still, prevaricating and procrastinating until the over-burdened public institutions can catch up. Time is of the essence. - Yours, etc.,From PAUL KILCULLENDirector, Institutional Development, LSB College, Dublin 2.