DUBLIN SOFTWARE company Havok is to create 26 jobs in Dublin to support the launch of a new product but it says it could have based twice that number here if it could have attracted skilled staff.

Havok managing director David O’Meara said another 26 jobs were being created in San Francisco to support a new mobile product.

“We would like to do more in Ireland but we are restricted because the quality of talent coming out of computer science is not what we would like,” he said.

The company is expected to sign a lease shortly for Dublin office space that will be able to accommodate an additional 70 staff. It has already signed up six staff for the new team and has another 20 vacancies.

However, Mr O’Meara said an additional 40 jobs had gone to Munich and San Francisco in the past two years that could have been in Dublin.

Havok’s software is used by games developers and film studios to add realism and special effects to their productions. The company was acquired by Intel for $110 million (€80.6 million) in 2007 but continues to operate independently.

Mr O’Meara has repeatedly said wider economic and competitiveness issues have hampered Havok’s development. He has been a vocal critic of the quality of Ireland’s education system in particular.

Just one in four of Havok’s PhD-qualified developers is Irish.

“The education system is very good at turning out people who can regurgitate pre-learned answers to questions in exams,” he said. “We need to focus more on problem-solving. We need to take back control of the schools from the trade unions.”

Havok is preparing for the Game Developers Conference, the biggest annual gathering for game makers, in San Francisco next week. The firm launches its new products at the event each year and this year it will unveil Havok Skin, an add-on to its Cloth product, which enhances the realism of characters’ skin in games.

Mr O’Meara said he expected it to be particularly popular in the Asian market.