Bernard Allen
Question:24 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the steps, if any, being taken to deal with the acute manpower shortages in the tourism and hotel sectors. [11714/99]
Written Answers. - Tourism Industry.
The tourism industry has been experiencing an increasing problem with labour and skill shortages in recent years but these difficulties are not unique to the sector. Due to Ireland's recent favourable economic performance and changing demographic structure, labour shortages are now affecting many sectors in the economy including retailing, building and construction and software.
In response to these difficulties, both the tourism industry representative bodies and CERT continue to work individually and in partnership to promote careers in tourism in a very competitive environment.
In November 1998, CERT launched the first national tourism careers roadshow as part of its recruitment drive. The roadshow toured nationwide and was supported by a major media and advertising campaign. It featured careers days in 35 prime venues and was backed by similar events in CERT's own centres which together attracted over 10,000 student visitors. A databank of over 8,000 seeking further contact and summer jobs in the industry has been compiled.
ACareers in Tourism Magazine, sponsored by CERT, the Irish Hotels Federation and the Restaurants Association of Ireland, was produced and given to every student who attended any of the career promotion events. A 16 page careers supplement was also produced in a national newspaper and 5,000 copies of the supplement were distributed at career events throughout 1998.
Workshops for career guidance counsellors took place in Kilkenny, Carlow and Kerry, 60 school exhibitions were also attended by CERT and 283 career talks were given to 10,000 students. These talks were targeted at those schools that did not attend the careers roadshows.
A tourism recruitment promotion with 2FM Radio took place in January and February this year involving participation in street entertainment and radio slots over a three week period.
The telephone careers information line on freephone 1800 produced more than 3,000 inquiries on tourism careers. Careers information was circulated to over 1,400 schools, FÁS offices, libraries and youth organisations. Information packs were made available to all industry personnel giving career talks. These packs include career brochures and course information, a careers video and overhead slides.
I understand that notwithstanding the competitive labour environment, CERT maintained 1998 recruitment levels at close to the previous year's levels with the assistance of a range of interventions, including those which I have already outlined. I understand from CERT that it anticipates a broadly similar outturn in 1999.
On many occasions since taking up office, I have urged the industry to become more proactive in addressing recruitment difficulties and labour shortages and to take appropriate steps to counter the perceived poor image of tourism as a career opportunity. In this context I particularly welcome the Irish Hotels Federation's quality employer programme which is based on best practice in all aspects of employment including recruitment, induction training, ongoing performance assessment, career progression and conditions of pay and employment. I understand that in the two years since the programme was introduced, about 60 per cent of members of the federation have applied for accreditation and that 220 establishments have been accredited so far. The Restaurants Association of Ireland's restaurant and customer charter is another good example of the type of initiative needed.
As the labour market is expected to tighten with unemployment levels declining further over the coming years, greater emphasis may well have to be placed on other potential sources of labour for the tourism sector, including married women returning to work, retired people, those wishing to work part-time and non-national labour. The key challenge facing the industry and CERT is how to put in place appropriate policies, programmes and arrangements to attract, motivate and retain a skilled labour force in the face of declining labour availability and increasing competition from other sectors. For the industry this will also involve considering internal training requirements and measures which could improve labour productivity. In the context of preparations for the new national development plan, my Department is working closely with CERT to identify the most appropriate focus for its activities in the future and specific measures which should be undertaken by it to help address the training requirements of the industry, in an increasingly competitive labour market.