Mr. Adrian Cummins:

I will start by addressing the issue of work permits. We have made a submission on work permits to the Department every six months since 2010 during the window of opportunity and each has been refused because the Department does not want to deal with the issue of work permits for our sector. Some 210 were received in the sector in 2016, but the road haulage industry, a far smaller sector, received 350. New Zealand which is of a similar size to Ireland has a functioning work permit system involving a two-year permit. It targets specific countries to attract skilled labour in a similar manner to how many nurses in the health care sector in Ireland come from the Philippines. The same could be done in our sector if we followed a similar system to that in place in New Zealand, involving a quota system for 1,000 people in the hospitality industry which would be cut off for two years. The country is approaching full employment and our industry is crying out for staff. There are the same issues across Europe in terms of the need for skilled labour.

Our industry will benefit from the commis chef programme, one of the new apprenticeship programmes. It is to be welcomed that it was picked as one of the new programmes and that it was recognised that it should be developed. That is the only good thing about it. There is a very poor take-up and very poor marketing of apprenticeships outside the construction industry in Ireland and a proper marketing programme must be developed in that regard. In terms of how it is structured, organisations such as FÁS and its replacement, SOLAS, do not have expertise in certain sectors. They were heavily involved in the trades and construction industry, but the hospitality sector is very new to them. A sufficient level of expertise was and is not present in these organisations.Education and training boards are not hospitality trainersper se. Fáilte Ireland which previously had responsibility for hospitality training has ceased to provide it, even though the legislation states it must do so. It is not doing what it is supposed to be doing.

I take Deputy Niall Collins' point on the harmonisation of water charges. We have met Irish Water on the issue which is going or has gone to the regulator. However, we should look at the lowest common denominator, ensure there are efficiencies and best value for the customer.