asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if he will consider setting up a tourism showcase involving the participation of the private sector due to the huge skills shortages in the tourism industry with the main objective of this tourism showcase being to attract foreign nationals to work in the Irish tourism sector. [11596/00
Priority Questions. - Skill Shortages.
A report commissioned by CERT and published last year entitled "Hospitality 2000", quantified the skills shortages facing the tourism industry up to 2005. This report highlighted two major challenges facing the industry, namely the recruitment of new entrants and the retention and development of existing staff.
CERT has been working with industry partners to address the challenges set out in the report. Implementation of the recommendations will require the industry to commit additional resources to develop and retain valuable staff and find ways to achieve excellence and improve productivity with the same or fewer people.
Meanwhile CERT is continuing to promote recruitment to the industry through a variety of strategic interventions which to date have proved important in maintaining recruitment numbers to formal craft level training. The main objective of these interventions is to highlight to young people, those returning to work and other categories of potential employees, the advantages of a career in a fast growing successful industry.
Recently, I launched CERT's new nation-wide programme to encourage people who have been out of the workforce for a long time to take up a career in the tourism industry. This follows on from another scheme launched in May 1999 in Ballymun, targeted at long-term unemployment blackspots, which has proved very popular and successful, with participants being virtually guaranteed jobs on successful completion of the courses.
As the State tourism training agency, it is part of CERT's remit to help promote careers in hospitality and tourism and, in conjunction with the sector, to help recruit people into training for the industry. Each year it organises a major recruitment campaign in Ireland. The campaign is implemented in partnership with representatives from the Irish Hotels Federation, Restaurants Association of Ireland, Vintners Federation of Ireland and the Licensed Vintners Association and is targeted at second level students from transition year to leaving certificate level. It includes a national careers road show which is supported by a major media and advertising campaign. As part of this road show, personnel from the main employer bodies attend and give first hand experience of work in the industry and, in the case of IHF members, this usually involves tours of their premises. CERT also attends the main career exhibitions, together with representatives of the IHF and RAI.
Additional InformationIn 1998, in response to ongoing staff shortages in the industry, CERT initiated a pilot recruitment drive in the UK to attract Irish tourism workers back to Ireland. Both the Irish Hotels Federation and the Restaurants Association of Ireland were approached to participate in the project. However, the project failed to meet its targets and was not continued. Since then, tourism employers have participated in recruitment fairs in Wales and Scotland which have proved very successful in attracting staff to Ireland. They are due to participate further in focused recruitment in England, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland and Greece. Irish participation in fairs such as these is co-ordinated by FÁS, which welcomes employers to participate with it at these fairs. I understand the Irish Hotels Federation, Irish hotel groups and individual hotels are also participating in EURES, the European Employment Service, to help satisfy labour supply in the hospitality sector.
I am also aware that a number of private sector recruitment agencies are actively engaged in recruiting workers from overseas for employment in the hospitality industry. Under the new national development plan, my Department will work closely with CERT to identify the most appropriate focus for its activities in the future and the specific measures which should be taken to help address the requirements of the industry in an increasingly competitive labour market.
Does the Minister agree we must expand the focus of the recruitment drive particularly as 87% of restaurant owners in the west have great difficulty in getting staff? Is the Minister aware that 120 new hotels opened in the past two and a half years? They are quality hotels but unfortunately do not have a quality service. There are 40 hotels planned for this year, but there are not any staff. Will the Minister look seriously at the future role of non-nationals and at having a recruitment drive early in the year when it would be possible for people to give a commitment to work in the industry? There are 8,000 vacancies. Does the Minister agree that while CERT is doing an outstanding job, training must be industry led in the future?
I agree that it should be industry led. There is unquestionably a problem in the labour area not just in this sector but in other sectors.
None as important as this at present.
It is a problem for the tourism and other industries . As regards non-nationals, it is important to have a training programme so that our standards can be maintained. There is a pool of Irish labour into which we are still trying to tap. We are trying to get as many long-term unemployed Irish people back to work. Two weeks ago I introduced a return to work programme to people – men but more particularly women – who had been out of the workforce for a long period asking them to come back into training. There is a vast pool in the age group 35-plus who for various reasons, perhaps child-rearing, being involved in voluntary work and so on, have been out of work and who could be enticed back into the labour force. It has been very successful and we had to set up extra training in some areas. CERT has been doing tremendous work.
The time for this question has expired.
There is a return to work programme, courses for the unemployed, exhibitions, school talks, guidance counsellors—
The message is not getting through.
The problem is not confined to this sector. The Irish Hotels Federation has pointed out that the minimum wage is not a problem. I thought it would be for this more than any other sector but it has had little or no impact on the industry.