Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 October 2013
314. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps he is taking to ensure that trained Irish chefs are provided with opportunities to work in this country (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41022/13]
View answerThe National Tourism Development Authority, Fáilte Ireland, which comes under the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, is the lead agency responsible for encouraging, promoting and supporting the recruitment, training and education of people for the tourism industry.
Over the past 20 years, Fáilte Ireland has been responsible for the development of many successful Tourism and Hospitality courses which are currently being delivered in colleges around Ireland today. These courses have been developed by Fáilte Ireland working in conjunction with educational providers such as the Institutes of Technology and most recently with Colleges of Further Education. They include craft based training (Chefs / Bar and Restaurant Skills, etc) courses as well as a range of other courses designed to prepare individuals for a career in the Tourism and Hospitality industry across a wide range of disciplines
There are currently 1,600 job seeker chefs registered with the Department of Social Protection. Over the period January to September 2013, there were 2,250 vacancies for chefs advertised through the public employment services. The vacancy data from the National Skills Bulletin produced by the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit in FÁS on behalf of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs indicates that there are no shortages for chefs but that there are potential retention issues within the sector.
Follow up surveys to track the labour market outcomes for trainees completing craft based training courses are commissioned on a recurrent basis by Fáilte Ireland. In the most recent of these surveys, a minority of persons not working as chefs cited the absence of employment opportunities to work as a chef as their main reason for not working as a chef. Among persons not working as chefs, the findings of the most recent survey point to a combination of four job-related factors as influencing their decision to not work as chefs, namely, unsuitable working hours, low pay, temporary work, and a lack of promotion opportunities.
The authors of the 2012 study prepared for Fáilte Ireland concluded that measures to address the disinclination of a substantial minority of trainees completing courses in professional cookery to seek employment as a chef fall largely within the remit of the sector since measures to improve pay and conditions are relevant to addressing recruitment difficulties where these arise and to ensuring more broadly that the supply of trained personnel is fully retained in the sector.
