Mr. Adrian Cummins:

We would see a cluster of training centres in certain parts of the country while in other parts of the country they do not have a training centre for cheffing or for hospitality. We need to make sure we have good accessibility for people who want to get into our industry and that they do not have to travel long distances, especially around apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are linked between the employer and the programme itself. A person spends three days in the restaurant or hotel and two days in college. That training centre needs to be accessible to them.

With the chef de partie programme, entry level is commis chef and there is chef de partie and sous chef. Chef de partie is predominantly down in the Munster region and not really in the west, the midlands of even in Dublin. We need to make sure we have a regional spread of training centres.

On the centre of excellence, I take the point. There is an opportunity for one of the training colleges to become like what Denmark has done in gastronomy around Noma. They have a centre of excellence within Copenhagen that put that country on the map for food. In San Sebastian in Spain, around culinary experience, there is another centre of excellence around food as well. There is merit in what the Senator is saying.