Vol. 504 No. 3
5 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the steps, if any, he is taking to ensure that the expanding tourism sector will be able to meet its labour demands within the parameters of Partnership 2000 in view of a company's decision (details supplied) to cut back on investing in Ireland due to labour shortages. [11788/99]
The tourism industry has been experiencing an increasing problem with labour and skills 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 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 career days in 35 prime venues and was backed by similar events in CERT's centres which together attracted more than 10,000 student visitors. A databank of more than 8,000 people seeking further contact and summer jobs in the industry has been compiled.
A "Careers 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 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 Freefone 1800 produced over 3,000 inquiries on tourism careers. Careers information was circulated to more than 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.
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 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 proac tive 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. In the two years since the programme was introduced, approximately 60 per cent of members of the federation have applied for accreditation and 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.
Will the Minister agree that the human resource base is important to the successful development of tourism? There are 156 Bord Fáilte approved units of accommodation in Sligo, with all its attractions, and 58 in Leitrim. A leading company has declined to invest further in the tourism industry because, despite what the Minister said in his reply, it cannot recruit staff. Is there a policy for retraining staff and to encourage people into the tourism industry? Large numbers of tourists are coming to this country and the industry will be badly served if we do not have qualified trained personnel on the ground. What provision has been made for investment in human resources, particularly in the western and Border counties? Companies are declining to expand because they cannot recruit staff, despite all the announcements the Minister has made.
There is enormous potential in the tourism area but the problem is that many people are using it as a type of one-stop-shop before they take up a different career. That has come about as a result of the industry's bad image. I have raised this matter with those in the industry and they have responded positively by introducing quality approved programmes and the restaurants have also come on board. We are trying to get away from the image that the service industry is not what it once was. Irish people will never again be servile. We are trying to get away from that mentality. There is enormous potential in the industry and jobs in tourism in the future will pay well, particularly with the introduction of the minimum wage, but it is difficult to indoctrinate that in people.
Has the Minister plans to further promote the culture of enterprise and business in schools? There is a misunderstanding on the part of teachers with regard to encouraging students to go into business and the service industry. The Minister is correct that there is a misunderstanding of the role of serving the customer but he could do a great deal to further indoctrinate the enormous potential of the industry. I appeal to him to promote the tourism industry in the forthcoming school term. We must develop tourism in Sligo, Leitrim and the Border counties. If we do not succeed in encouraging people to work in hotels and restaurants, the industry will not grow.
I agree and that is what we did this year. CERT embarked on a roadshow and visited 38 schools. We targeted schools it was unable to get to and it visited schools to promote careers in tourism. We targeted 10,000 students and I hope that will continue next year. One does not see the effects of a measure for two or three years. I agree that there is a shortage of labour in tourism, as in all sectors. We will have to look towards the future.
