Irish companies are more dependent on foreign IT professionals than their counterparts in Britain, Germany and the US, a new study from recruitment firm Harvey Nash shows.

The survey of almost 3,000 respondents, including 273 in Ireland, ranks the country in third place behind Switzerland and Australia in terms of the numbers of foreign IT professionals employed at technology firms.

According to the study of technologists based in eight European countries, Ireland ranked top for the percentage of IT professionals who think their country’s innovation position will improve.

In addition, Ireland came in second in terms of respondents who believed their company was doing enough to protect itself from cyber attacks and fourth for the percentage of professionals planning on moving job in the next year. However, the country fared less well in other categories, coming in second from last for awareness and promotion of diversity and inclusion initiatives.