A shortage of skilled engineers in Ireland with professional experience is having an impact on the expansion needs of Irish firm Dromone Engineering, said the company’s managing director William Egenton.
Speaking at the 2012 Engineers Ireland Annual Conference at the Europa Hotel in Belfast, Egenton said that while Ireland had a great track record in manufacturing and engineering, the country wasn’t producing engineers to meet the needs of this company.
He believes the company has opportunities to ‘as much as €20m by 2014’ but it needs the right people to meet this potential.
“I welcome the Government’s renewed drive to promote the value of careers in technology and engineering in schools,” said Egenton.
“However, there is a clear time lag between this and actually producing engineers with the expertise to meet the expansion needs of a company like ours. This is a concern and forces us to look abroad for the right type of engineer.
“Dromone is a Meath company with an established expertise in manufacturing technologies for the agricultural and construction markets. We now have market opportunities that could grow our sales to as much as €20m by 2014 but we need to recruit staff with the requisite skills to meet this target.
“Essentially, it is difficult to find Irish engineering professionals with the specific experience and skills we need,” he said.
John Power, director general of Engineers Ireland, believes the country needs to put more into ensuring that the engineering skills gaps are met.
“We have heard from some of Ireland’s foremost engineering entrepreneurs and the overall theme that has emerged is that if Ireland is to continue to grow its export market we need to put the necessary resources in place to fill the engineering vacancies,” he said.
