In the Irish Times today Owen Ross head of the department of humanities at the Athlone Institute of Technology suggests that Ireland should 

Giving tax credits to students who enrol in prioritised courses could help achieve the goal of building a knowledge economy,

Now the thinking of this is that students don’t take up these courses because they are not financial prudent to do so. Which is very true. But that fact that they don’t says more about Ireland today then what a Opinion Piece in the Irish Times about giving Tax Breaks for students will achieve. Think about it if there is not a financial incentive for Students to take up these course then surely there is not that great of a demand for these skills. If they were in demand then the value would be great and the financial incentive to take these courses there. In other words as most scientists and engineers will tell you. Well paying jobs are not easily available in Ireland, indeed paying jobs are not exactly widely available. Simply putting a Tax break in place might incentives it more but maybe not enough. The jobs have to be create before the employees. And they just don’t seem to be there