Before Question Time I was referring to the role and the performance of AnCO and I expressed the opinion that this organisation had made a very important contribution to the vital area of industrial training. There should be close cooperation and understanding between the Minister's Department and the Department of Education in relation to AnCO's training schemes. I understand that different areas of conflict have already presented themselves and I envisage the natural evolution of AnCO's role and responsibility as being very much tied in with the technical education branch in particular of the Department of Education. I am sure the Minister is aware that with the growing intake of trainees, apprentices and so forth by AnCO and the rapid development of AnCO in recent years there is need to ensure that there is no duplication between the facilities in training schemes and courses offered by the Minister's Department through AnCO and those offered by the Department of Education in the technical and technological field. I do not see why there should be any conflict. The educational and training resources available in this small country are small enough, so it is vitally important that there be no conflict of interest between the Department of Labour and the Department of Education. We must ensure the optimum utilisation of the resources of both Departments to evolve an appropriate national training policy for employment.
The Minister referred to the question of management training, which indeed is very relevant to the role of AnCO. He referred to the increased State subvention for the Irish Management Institute. I had experience of the IMI during the four years I had the privilege to be Minister for the Gaeltacht and I was very aware during that time of the vital importance of the availability of properly trained managers for new industries. The farther away one goes from the capital city of Dublin the more difficult the problem of unavailability of trained management becomes. In the Gaeltacht development, the area in which I had personal experience, the first major problem confronting Gaeltarra Eireann was the difficulty of getting suitably trained managers for industrial projects; second, and more important, was the difficulty of retaining them in remote, peripheral isolated regions. Therefore I support any steps that will be taken to accelerate and upgrade the training of managers. We were so concerned some years ago about this lack of managerial skill in the Gaeltacht region that the Department of the Gaeltacht and Gaeltarra Eireann had to initiate a scholarship scheme at the Regional Technical College in Galway where young people from the Gaeltacht are being trained in business studies and basic managerial sciences with a view to having a pool of skilled and trained managers available. I endorse what the Minister has said here in relation to the vital importance of the managerial dimension in economic development. He rightly said that there is huge expenditure on industrial training and on the imparting of skills of various kinds to the work-force to prepare them for industry and that parallel with that there should be appropriate managerial training courses which should keep pace with the acceleration and increase in the number of training courses being offered by AnCO at the worker level.
In my experience of the IMI I have been very impressed with the setup there and with the commitment, skills and expertise of their key executives and their various training personnel. Relevant too is the organisation known as CERT who are responsible for the recruitment and training of personnel for hotels, catering and the tourist industry. I have always held the view which I have expressed here in the House down the years, and nothing I have learned since leads me to change my view, that the tourist industry with all its offshoots—the hotel and catering industry, the travel business and so on —is a vital industry for the economy and that it should have available to it the same educational training facilities as are available to industry through AnCO.
The Minister has referred to the recurring question of whether CERT should be hived off from the overall umbrella of AnCO. I am aware of the type of work carried out by CERT and I am glad that the Minister has set up a review body comprised of representatives of CERT and of AnCO as well as of the other relevant organisations—Bord Fáilte and the Department of Education, for instance. However, this review body should not confine itself to examining the question of whether it would be preferable to hive off CERT totally from the umbrella of AnCO but that this review body would make an in-depth study of the education and training needs of all aspects of the tourist industry. This is an industry which by reason of its seasonal nature presents immense problems in relation to the recruitment and to the retaining of staff. I do not know precisely what percentage of the industry is seasonal, but a substantial part of it is likely to be on the basis only of between three and six months per year. The staffing problems resulting from this situation are of great concern to hoteliers because they find it necessary to recruit new staff each year. Very often these people are school-leavers.
Some years ago I recall considering this problem. At that time there were six or seven hotels in tourist areas under the auspices of Gaeltarra Éireann and we were considering the possibility of providing offseason employment perhaps in craft work, in the manufacture of souvenirs and so on during the winter months, so that in this way each hotelier could retain the nucleus of a permanent staff who would be available to take up work in the catering industry each summer. It is necessary that CERT be strengthened and reorganised. The review body that has been set up may be a step in the right direction in this context. I would prefer CERT to be an independent body having wide terms of reference and being able to formulate imaginative programmes of training, education and off-season employment in the hotel and catering industry and for all people involved in the tourist industry.
The Minister referred to his responsibility for implementing the European Social Fund. He referred to the difficulties that have been encountered in relation to the social implications of EEC transport legislation for this country. The question of the tachograph has been mentioned. This question was adverted to also during the recent debate on the Road Transport Bill. I am glad the Minister appreciates that the introduction of the tachograph has major implications for the Irish road haulage industry and to the whole question of transport costs. The EEC Commission and the Council of Ministers recognise that we have certain problems and because of this situation a breathing space was allowed in our case. However, I urge the Minister to do everything possible to ensure that the EEC are fully aware of the special problems of a small country like ours when there is a question of the tachograph or of any other transport regulation being introduced. There should be special consideration for us having regard to the fact that we are the furthest removed from all the European mainland and that our industrialists must transport their goods much greater distances and share a much higher element of transport charges than is shared by their competitors in the UK or on the European mainland. I urge the Minister to continue his efforts to ensure that the maximum breathing space is given in regard to the implementation of the tachograph or of any such legislation.
The two areas that I considered to be of the greatest expectation so far as our joining the Community was concerned were the social fund and the regional fund, but four or five years later I must confess to being sorely disappointed with the failure of the EEC to evolve a realistic social or regional fund.