Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In October 2021, 350 general employment permits were provided for hospitality but only managers were on the critical skills list. Why is it only managers? Prior to Covid the hospitality sector in the country was huge, with more than 260,000 people working in the industry. I would like to know where they have gone. We are speaking about chefs of all things. As a country we have an amazing reputation, even for beach trucks and tuck trucks and so on. In any town or village in the country some fellow will say there is a famous chef here or there. Why are chefs not on the critical skills list? It the job not attractive enough? Is it that the pay is not strong enough? Would putting chefs on the critical skills list set a certain bar whereby they must be on certain wage rate? Would it pump them up? Would it be a regularisation? Would it make it more attractive for chefs to come in?