Sir, – Joe Humphreys raises several interesting issues in his article "Overqualified: Workers who know too much" (Weekend Review, June 6th). However, the problem is not necessarily that we have too many graduates but that we have too many graduates in the wrong areas. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) estimates a shortfall of almost 1,000 information and communications technology (ICT) graduates per year for the foreseeable future. This means that in Ireland there are jobs for 1,000 more ICT graduates than our third-level institutes are producing. If we do not bridge this skills gap our ability to attract inward investment from ICT companies and to expand our indigenous ICT industry will be greatly diminished. The ICT sector is currently responsibly for approximately 25 per cent of Ireland's total turnover; it accounts for more than a third of our exports. Any downturn in this sector will significantly damage our economy.–Yours, etc,
Dr ANN LEDWITH,
Castletroy.
Limerick.