Mr. Adrian Cummins:

I thank the Deputy. I will address his points on a task force on skills development and a funded approach. We have a careers oversight group that involves collaboration between the State and industry bodies but it is not funded. We need a secretariat that is funded. The group meets to ascertain the views of the industry and to lobby various Departments to get issues addressed. We need to have a secretariat and funded group given our current position, with 40,000 staff. As I have said continuously, this matter has been an issue for our sector since 2012.

On the representation element, we are very clear. Every tourist that comes into this country has to eat. We stand over the quality of the products produced by farmers across the country and served in restaurants. We need to dial up our food tourism. We did so in the past and need to do so again, especially having regard to sustainability. There is talk about sustainability. Having a representative from the food sector or restaurant sector, or even the pub sector, on a State board for tourism is very important. This was the case in the past. People have been appointed in the past but somehow we have been moved off it. Thankfully, this committee recommended that there should be two representatives. I hope the Minister will see fit to act on this.