Bernard Allen
Ceist:29 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Education and Science the way in which he intends to spend the £20 million allocated for education and training in the tourism industry. [10953/98]
Written Answers. - Tourism Training.
Soon after my appointment as Minister for Education and Science, it became very evident to me that significant capital investment was required to facilitate the enhancement of existing facilities and the provision of additional training places in the third level sector.
To address these issues, I immediately established a £250 million scientific and technological education investment fund, the primary objectives of which were to: review, extend and modernise the infrastructure of third level institutions, particularly in the technological sector; develop new areas of activities where emerging skills needs have been identified and invest in promoting innovation to maintain and further our economic growth.
The £20 million investment in education and training for the tourism industry, to which the Deputy refers, is part of the provision under this fund and will be spent in accordance with the terms of the Scientific and Technological Education (Investment) Fund Act, 1997.
The emergence of skills shortages in the tourism sector is a matter of concern to the Government, given the significance of the industry to the economy. The present capacity of the education system to respond to the problem has, for some time, been constrained by the infrastructural inadequacies of the institutes of technology, many of which were established more than 25 years ago.
The £20 million is additional to the existing investment programmes of support for the sector and will provide a sustained programme of capital investment in the provision of state of the art hotel and tourism training facilities. Proposals for new developments in Athlone, Cork, Galway, Mayo, Tallaght, Tralee and Waterford Institutes of Technology are under examination at present in my Department.
Consultations are taking place, for example, between officials of my Department, the institutes and CERT, to ensure that the best possible solutions are found for addressing the skills needs of this important sector of our economy, a sector which contributes over £1 billion annually to the Exchequer, and which directly employs almost 200,000 workers.
I am delighted to say that students pursuing courses leading to employment in the hotel, catering and tourism industries will, in future, benefit not only from these new specialist facilities but also from full access to new libraries, information technology and language laboratories which will result from the £250 million investment programme as a whole.