Mr. Donall O'Keeffe:

Regarding staff retention in the industry, there are two issues. There is obviously the issue that international staff have relocated home and been lost to the Irish industry and the Irish economy entirely. We had a huge proportion of international staff in our workforce. More concerning for us, however, is that we are now losing staff from the sector because the closures have been so extended that there is no certainty as to when we will reopen. People have to get on with their lives and they are moving to those sectors where there are employment opportunities. Hospitality is losing staff to the retail sector and distribution in particular. We expect to lose many staff to construction if it reopens in April before us. Our sector is losing highly skilled and valuable workers to other sectors in the economy because the closure has been so extended and our prospects for reopening in the near term are very uncertain. It would be good if the committee heard from a publican in that regard. Noel Anderson has two businesses and he will be able to explain the impact on his businesses first-hand.