If you're military has what are called Limited Duty Officers, Warrant Officers for us are very similar.
Hope that clears things up a little.
Unless you're talking Navy, in which case they have Limited Duty Officers AND Warrant Officers.
Irish Army, having flight time is not a requirement for a civvie, but it would make one's application packet more competetive.
As for WOs being Enlisted, that is a big negative. They fall in-between the Enlisted and Commissioned Officer scales. A WO1 outranks a Sergeant Major, but a 2LT outranks a CW5 (theoretically). In a lot of the warrant officer fields in the US, you are required to have been an NCO (Sergeant or above) prior to becoming a Warrant Officer, Aviation is the only one that I know of that does not have that requirement. That is due to the fact that, as RLK pointed out, they are technical experts in their field.
However, to confuse you even more, at some point (I don't remember right now), a Warrant Officer does become a Commissioned Officer (as in they receive a commission), but they remain Warrant Officers. So you can have non-commissioned and commissioned Warrant Officers.
Just smile and nod, buddy
LOL