Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of the guests. In preparation for today's meeting, a line from yesterday's budget stuck in my mind from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy McGrath, when he said:

There is significant mobility in our labour market. It will surprise many to learn that 115,000 people who have come off the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, to return to work have moved to a different sector from that of their previous employment.

That statistic stuck in my mind during our discussions today. Noel Anderson from the Licensed Vintners Association was at this committee before the summer recess. He is an exceptionally good employer and he spoke about how his very high-profile gastropubs had difficulty in trying to recruit chefs in those areas and that some chefs had left the industry to join the road haulage business, for example.

My first question is for Mr. Berney around what steps are being taken, the engagement with statutory bodies such as Fáilte Ireland, and what steps have been taken by the unions to set out the concerns being raised here and to ensure they are being addressed. I am sure Fáilte Ireland and other bodies have their finger on the pulse of the industry.

Second, the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, has been mentioned by a number of our witnesses here today, particularly by Dr. Curran in the context of her research, on which I compliment her. I believe the committee should write to the WRC so we can get those findings on the inspections, referenced by Dr. Curran, to feed into our own report. Perhaps Dr. Curran will elaborate on that.

On the joint labour committees, as mentioned by Mr. Hynes, we have seen the effectiveness of this. Again, it was referenced in the budget yesterday in the context of the childcare sector. Consider, for example, that those working in the childcare sector are at FETAC level 5. The union is, therefore, negotiating with and for an entire body that has a particular level of education, which the union can then negotiate on from a union point of view. What are the challenges presented by negotiating for a wide spectrum of different employees in the hospitality sector, which we might see in the hotel business, and the very wide range of skills and levels? Is it a more difficult process when entering into that process?