To most of the other coaches he meets on trips like this week's to Cyprus for the European Youth Championships, Ireland's dramatic transformation from zeros to heroes on the international under-age soccer stage is something of a mystery.

Not to Noel O'Reilly.

The 50-year-old coach, who has worked hand in glove with manager, Brian Kerr, at club and youth international level for more than a decade, firmly believes that the potential has always been there for this country to produce high-class junior sides.

"There's always been a conveyor belt of good players in the country and there always will be. The problem has been with having the people and structures there to help them achieve their potential from the time their talent is first spotted," says the Dubliner, who next week leaves the National League champions, St Patrick's Athletic, for a full-time coaching position with the FAI.

"We almost had it cracked more than a decade ago but then, during the Charlton era, the whole emphasis was on the senior side and we lost a lot of ground again."

Since the arrival of Mick McCarthy things have, he believes, started to swing back in the right direction, and the early achievements have been remarkable, with the Under16s recently winning the European Championship title in Scotland, the Under20s finishing third at the World Championships in Malaysia and fine performances by the Under-18s at last year's European Championships helping Ireland to second spot in the UEFA's junior ranking list.

There have also been notable achievements in a string of invitation events. "The success is important in a lot of different ways," observes O'Reilly. "Obviously it's good for their confidence but more importantly playing against teams from different parts of the world helps to broaden their outlook, make them less parochial.

"They're not just playing against teams that are trying to play the game in the same way. They might be playing African teams, for instance, and apart from being a great thrill for a lad of 16, 17 or 18, that is a valuable learning experience for him, especially if he goes on to play for the Irish senior team and maybe comes up against an African team a few years down the line."

The upshot, he says, is that three or four years from now there may well be a pool of "smashing young players coming through but only if they get the chances to go on and play for the Liverpools and Blackburns or, if the National League raises its standards, with the best clubs here. It's the same in rugby, I'm sure, to make the leap from this level to the senior team the lads need to have the opportunity to play at the highest level week in week out with their clubs."

If Mr O'Reilly is critical of the priorities of the Charlton regime, he admits he does owe it a considerable debt for the number of youngsters the success of his team persuaded to go out and put boots on. Particularly in rural areas, he notes, there was an explosion in interest, the results of which were evident in the make up of the Under-16 panel that travelled to Scotland. That, in turn, has led to far greater efforts being made to pick out the youngsters with potential at a far younger age.

"I was at an Under-12s final at the end of last season," he says "and the number of scouts at it was unbelieveable. And most of those kids had either already been over to English clubs for trials or were earmarked to go for trials when the school year was over."

That, he admits, may not be the healthiest of scenarios, but the fact remains that good, promising kids are now being helped to improve their game from an early age, and that generally was not the case a few short years ago.

With the FAI now very much behind Mr Kerr's efforts to further improve matters, Mr O'Reilly believes we are continuing to move in the right direction, although the quality of facilities for youngsters, particularly the standard of local authority-owned pitches around the country remains an issue urgently needing to be addressed.

If problems like that were sorted out, he says, and the national coaching structures being devised at the moment are correctly implemented, "the mind boggles at what we could achieve over the next 10 or 15 years".