Ms Alison Kealy:

The reality is that it takes an awful lot of time because you must dedicate three or four days a week to recruitment. We have advertisements on all of the websites etc. and have put up signs all around the place. You are constantly talking to people in an effort to encourage them to work in the industry. The minute you get a curriculum vitae from a good applicant, you ring that person and organise to meet with him or her but at the same time, you are scheduling yourself against many other places because the applicant will have five or six interviews lined up for that week. So we must really sell ourselves to the applicants to get them to come in because there is a huge demand for employees in all sectors. Once we get people in, then they find that they like working in the sector because, as has been said, the environment is social and has a fun atmosphere. Employers must be more flexible as well, in that if an applicant tells us the hours he or she is available, then we will fit that into our schedule to encourage as many people as possible to work in the industry. In my pub, through the LVA, we have put seven of our staff members through the course so there is career progression.