Productivity: The most senior official in the Civil Service has said he would welcome the recruitment of more managers from the private sector into senior management positions in Government departments.

Dermot McCarthy, who is secretary general to the Government and the Department of the Taoiseach, said this would not be the norm but noted that provisions to allow such recruitment were already in place.

Stating that the Government needed expertise in critical functions, he said an obvious way of doing that was to have more mobility between the public and private sectors.

"I think mobility in both directions would be helpful, although I think you have to recognise that there are issues that come with that," he said at the Irish Management Institute conference yesterday. He was speaking in a debate on productivity during which he described the talks on a new social partnership agreement as "extremely difficult".

At the same debate, the head of an engineering group produced figures that showed a sharp decline in the number of students taking electronic and electrical engineering at UCD, in spite of a big shortfall in supply.

Project Management Group chief executive Pat McGrath said UCD had capacity to produce 77 graduates in these disciplines every year but noted that only 36 students will graduate this year. Some 20 students are in third year, 21 are in second year and 10 are in first year.

Mr McGrath cited a recent report from the professional engineering bodies that said there was a requirement to increase the total number of new engineering graduates in Ireland to 14,000 per year from 5,000 per year.

In a session on regulation, one of the biggest life insurers said the Government should intervene to ensure that companies selling investments in property outside the State are subject to domestic regulation.

Eagle Star Life chief executive Michael Brennan described as "ugly" the fact that a person could buy property on the coast of the Black Sea or in the "Amazonian jungle" from an unregulated company.

The absence of regulation was at variance with the tight regulation of the pension system under which a person opening a Personal Retirement Saving Account (PRSA) was obliged to sign seven forms and read nine documents.

There was nothing to stop an intermediary promising 50 per cent annual growth on the value of a foreign property and "guaranteed" rental income of 10 per cent per annum.

His remarks received a lukewarm response from Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, who said he had never addressed the matter himself. "I suppose we could give that consideration." Mr Cowen said he did not favour the development of official guidelines for every form of economic activity. He would not buy property in Bulgaria, for example, but he was not in favour of telling people what they should do with their money.

The Minister said he knew what the answer would be if he told a person not to invest in Bulgarian property. "It would be a short sentence."

Earlier, Mr Cowen told delegates that he favoured a regulatory system that was proportionate, transparent and that did not pose a threat to business activity. No new regulatory bodies should be established, he said. Existing regulators should be used for new tasks unless a compelling case existed to create a new body.

The chief executive of mobile operator O2, Danuta Gray, said the Government should set a target of reducing the administrative cost of regulation by 25 per cent 2010. To foster investment and innovation, business needed certainty about the cost of the regulatory regime and certainty around the regulatory environment.

The founding chief executive of health insurer Vivas, Oliver Tattan, said it was notable that big insurers such as Axa, Friends First and Allianz did not offer health insurance in Ireland even though they had other operations in the market. He attributed this to the difference in the lighter solvency requirements that governed the State-owned VHI scheme and stricter requirements for its rivals.

Mr Cowen said Mr Tattan "makes a fair point" and said he had discussed the matter with the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney.