Mr. Adrian Cummins:

Yes, we applied in May last year for funding from the labour market activation fund. However, we failed at the first hurdle, purely because the criteria relate to food processing, as opposed to restaurant and hospitality skills. Perhaps the committee might examine that issue with a view to placing hospitality to the forefront of activation efforts. Part of the difficulty is that FÁS which has responsibility for training is being subsumed into SOLAS, the latter having no major remit in the area of hospitality. Fáilte Ireland, on the other hand, which has the remit for hospitality, is pulling out of the training side in certain areas and reducing its budgets accordingly. That shortfall must be addressed. As I said, there are positions available in the sector. Today, in fact, there are some 300 chef training positions advertised on irishjobs.ie and other websites. As it takes four years to train a chef, there is an urgency attached to all of this.