Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will give Mr. Ó Conaire a break and come back to Ms Gleeson. Fáilte Ireland submitted written evidence to the committee in December 2021, which estimated there were 40,000 vacancies in the tourism industry.

Could Ms Gleeson talk a little about whether those severe skills shortages were in the sector prior to the pandemic? If not, how can employment in the sector be returned to 2019 levels? Were there still a large number of estimated vacancies in 2019?