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Tourism Industry

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 May 2022

Thursday, 5 May 2022

Questions (9, 11, 41)

Dara Calleary

Question:

9. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media her strategy to support building the capability of employees to help businesses to bridge the skills gaps they are experiencing and to drive greater employee retention; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22101/22]

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Christopher O'Sullivan

Question:

11. Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she will outline her strategy to provide support to the tourism sector to address the immediate labour and skills supply challenges which will be critical to the short-term recovery of the sector including staff retention; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22108/22]

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Bernard Durkan

Question:

41. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the extent to which she can assist the hospitality and tourism sector towards full economic recovery in the wake of Covid-19 with particular reference to the utilisation of particular methods to ensure the availability of necessary staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22131/22]

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Oral answers (12 contributions)

Fáilte Ireland published a survey of 1,000 businesses in February 2022, and identified that 30% face closure if the current recruitment crisis within hospitality is not resolved. I ask the Minister of State to outline the strategy to assist these businesses to bridge the skills gaps that they have, to support tourism as an employer, and to encourage people to take up careers in hospitality and tourism.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 11 and 41 together.

Recruitment continues to be a significant challenge for the tourism sector, with up to two thirds of businesses reporting reduced capacity due to staff shortages. My Department and Fáilte Ireland have been collaborating with industry and other Departments to ensure that there is a co-ordinated approach to addressing the labour and skills shortages. In February 2022, Fáilte Ireland published its most comprehensive research to date on the tourism and hospitality labour market. This robust and wide-ranging research programme covered the views of 1,000 employers and 3,500 workers with tourism and hospitality experience, as well as international benchmarking, a review of education provision and consultation with recruitment agencies. This research is shaping Fáilte Ireland’s work programmes this year to provide support to the industry. Fáilte Ireland's work includes supporting businesses to work together to drive the long-term repositioning of the sector as an appealing and rewarding career choice and workplace, helping to build the capability of individual employees to assist businesses to bridge the skills gaps they are experiencing, as well as driving greater employee retention by improving the quality of training across the business. Fáilte Ireland also chairs the tourism and hospitality careers oversight group, which continues to work closely with industry bodies, education providers and other Government bodies to support sustainable employment in the tourism sector with an immediate focus on recruitment and retention initiatives, as well as focusing on the long-term repositioning of the industry as a career choice. My Department and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science are represented on the careers oversight group. Officials from my Department also participate in the interdepartmental group on work permits chaired by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The work of the group resulted in up to 350 work permits being granted for managerial positions in certain tourism and hospitality businesses in 2021. My Department also successfully advocated last year for the prioritisation of chef permit applications, and is currently engaging with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with regard to permits now required. My Department and Fáilte Ireland will continue to engage with and provide support to the tourism sector through these challenging times.

The Minister of State mentioned chefs. Some 88% of respondents to the survey referenced by the Minister of State said they had considerable difficulty in recruiting chefs. We must consider the fact that 42% of workers who were working in the tourism and hospitality sector pre-pandemic, and who received PUP as a consequence, did not return to the industry. There are 40,000 vacancies in the sector. We pride ourselves in being Ireland of the welcomes. Tourism is a people-focused and a people-led experience. Until we can fill that gap, that experience will be diminished. I have often made the point that there was an organisation called CERT that was specifically focused on hospitality, tourism, and training chefs and hospitality staff. We need to go back to that organisation. I must say that I commend Fáilte Ireland. The survey is an excellent piece of work and research. It highlights the challenges that we face. The survey also found that in summer 2021, one third of hospitality workers were new to the industry. That figure will probably be even higher this summer. We need a strategy in place. It is too late for summer 2022 but we need to give guarantees to employers for summer 2023.

Deputy Calleary represents an area of County Mayo that is very similar to west Cork. They are two regions that rely very heavily on tourism. One could draw many parallels between the two regions. Westport is a bustling town in County Mayo; Clonakilty is a similar town in west Cork. Belmullet in County Mayo is similar to the Beara Peninsula in west Cork. There are many similarities. The point I am trying to get at is that there are many regions around Ireland, both on the coastline and inland, that rely heavily on tourism and hospitality, from the smaller cafés and pubs, up to the larger hotels.

Regional Ireland needs the survival of hospitality and in order to do that we need staff, to be able to recruit staff and to narrow the skills gap. There is a challenge and the Department needs to do everything possible to ensure that recruitment challenge is met so that the hospitality sector can survive into the future.

I appreciate what the Deputies say about Mayo and west Cork and that is why Fáilte Ireland is working closely with the key sectoral bodies and the tourism and hospitality oversight group, which is pivoted to focus on supporting the industry in its immediate recruitment challenges. Fáilte Ireland is supporting businesses to address vacancies in several ways. Regionally, Fáilte Ireland is helping the industry to build relationships with further and higher education providers to reach students and graduates who are available to work at peak times and become a key part of the seasonal work force. As part of this, Fáilte Ireland has also linked all the local education and training boards, ETBs, with businesses that are looking to recruit students to make them aware of the range of training and the scope of upskilling courses they can provide to newcomers to the industry. Fáilte Ireland is also working with the Department of Social Protection to promote the pathways to work strategy and improve opportunities for tourism and hospitality businesses to recruit from the live register to help ensure a future pipeline of talent and inspire the future generation of tourism. Fáilte Ireland recently launched the first ever industry-wide transition year work placement programme to provide tourism and hospitality businesses with a direct link to students looking for work experience placements which can progress to become seasonal roles.

I acknowledge that there is huge work under way but I am sure the Minister of State engages with and meets hospitality business owners on his travels and they are pulling their hair out to get qualified staff. I commend Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim ETB, which has commenced a programme of training for bar staff with local bars. It is a focused programme that provides skills. The level of vacancy is a threat to businesses. Some 30% of 1,000 responders to this robust survey say they face closure unless it is resolved. We are either serious about tourism as an industry or we are not. We have to put it on a proper and co-ordinated footing in terms of training. Let us build on this fantastic report. It has to wake us up to the challenge we face and we need an action plan on training and recruitment.

I want again to highlight the challenge. There was a feeling within hospitality that once the PUP was reduced recruitment and staff shortages would be less of an issue but that is not the case and unfortunately it is still a big issue. I will give the Minister of State an example of some of the issues. I spoke to one business recently that advertised for a chef position in June of last year and by October it had only received one CV, despite being quite a reputable business and that challenge is ongoing. Another business I spoke to was advertising on a monthly basis in the local newspapers to recruit in certain positions and it now has to do that on a weekly basis. It has to employ international recruitment agencies in order to try to recruit staff. There is a particular issue with chefs and visas for non-EU chefs, which needs to be expedited. On the whole we need to ensure there is an approach within the Government and the Department to ensure that hospitality and a career in it is a viable option and is attractive to young people.

Before the Minister of State comes in I wish to advise Deputy Durkan that his question is grouped in this set of questions if he wants to grasp his opportunity to come in.

Yes. There is a need to ensure every opportunity for recovery in the tourism sector, which is willing and anxious to proceed in the way already mentioned but needs that little bit extra.

We are not used to such brevity.

He was talking and walking. That was pretty impressive.

I hear what everyone is saying about Mayo, west Cork and Kildare. That is why significant work is ongoing by Fáilte Ireland with the ETBs, the Department of Social Protection on pathways to work and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on permits and visas as was referenced. We are all aware of businesses and restaurants in our local areas and people across the hospitality and tourism industry that are struggling to meet demand and the huge difficulties there are. That is why the number one focus of the tourism and hospitality oversight group is to address the immediate recruitment challenges. As I referenced in my initial response there is cross-departmental representation on that. Work is also ongoing to develop a new and excellent employer programme to showcase good employers across the industry and to help businesses improve their employer practices and reputation so they become places that can attract and retain talent into the long term. In addition to the immediate work ongoing to address the gaps in the labour market, significant work is ongoing to develop it as a long-term and sustainable place to work.

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