Dr. Deirdre Curran:

I am delighted the Deputy had a positive experience as a hospitality worker and a hospitality employer. That tells me it can be done. I presume he continued to make a profit. Treating people with dignity and respect can be done while still doing well in business or even better. When other employers lower the standard, however, it makes it much more difficult for good employers to survive and thrive.

As for types of business models, I would love to conduct research on it because we have no evidence. I would love to have disaggregated my research in respect of hotels and restaurants by size. That has not been done but I would love to do it.

On the State agency question, the imbalance of powers is exaggerated in hospitality. The voice of workers is silent, it seems from my research, so this cannot be left to employer bodies alone. Some State agency needs to have an overarching role in all this.

As for the four-day week, many hospitality workers took a deep breath when the sector closed, probably for the first time in decades, and rethought their careers. I think that is why many of them did not return to work, although that research has not yet been done. My next project will concern the return to work, or not, of hospitality workers. The four-day week is a brilliant idea-----