Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are all very welcome. I concur with the best wishes to both Mr. Clancy and Ms Kealy in their roles. I thank their predecessors who represented the organisations over difficult times. During the week, Adrian Cummins made the point in a tweet that 150,000 people on the live register, and we have an industry that is struggling to get people working. We met with the Restaurants Association of Ireland, the Irish Hotels Federation and Fáilte Ireland a number of weeks ago to speak about this same issue. I say “Well done” to the VFI for its project with Griffith College, which I think could be expanded. I asked about it at the time and is something I am working on myself. We need a centre within the CAO, ETB and colleges of further education system dedicated to tourism and hospitality. It is an industry where more than a quarter of a million people are needed to service our tourism and hospitality. I have always put the two together. It is important, as I have said here before, that people representing hospitality are on the board of Fáilte Ireland, because they are needed.

I had a meeting in my own county of Longford with representatives of the VFI, including the chair, to whom I spoke, and the vice chairperson, and of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, the ETB etc. about looking at doing what I mentioned in the midlands to service the country. It would concentrate and specialise in particular on the catering end of things. At the minute, Tralee and Cork are the only places in the country where a person can do certain types of chef training courses. The reality is somebody from Donegal will not travel to Cork.

The people who are now running the most successful restaurants in the country went to the likes of Killybegs, Cathal Brugha Street and CERT. All of those are gone, so there is a huge opening, not just for catering but for the entire tourism and hospitality industry, to link in with the colleges of further education and the CAO system to put something together. When we put the emphasis on that, people will then see there is a career for them and it will get people into that. I look forward to working with both Ms Kealy and Mr. Clancy on that, because I believe it can happen and I want to make it happen.

The minimum unit pricing of alcohol under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act, which was mentioned, is something of which I was supportive, and I spoke to the VFI in my area about it. What are the witnesses' experiences of its effects since it has come in? Has it been positive to the trade and businesses? The witnesses quoted figures that indicate the market is changing. What benefit do the witnesses believe that that has brought to the pub industry?