Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was going to make the point that we can do this with Ukrainians, and that is great. I am delighted and that family hotel is thrilled it could place that young lady in a job. Despite the language barrier, things are working out pretty well. It shows we can do things.

We need to get chefs onto that critical list. We are only seeing the nub of the problem now and if we do not deal with it, we will see serious closures in the hotel sector. As I said, some fine family hotels are closing two days a week. That never happened with these hotels but they have to do it now because they cannot keep the staff they have working seven days a week. Many of them are exhausted as it is. Therefore they have decided that they must give a day or two off so they must close the hotel. I know it saddens them greatly when they have to put a sign up saying, "Sorry, due to staff shortages we are closed Monday and Tuesday". It is not good for tourism or for any town or village. Many people from abroad are travelling around this country. They are coming from every country in the world. There is a huge number of tourists here. If they come to a town or village and the hotel is closed, it does not look great. I agree with the sentiments Mr. Lynn is expressing. While I accept there are one or two little issues we need to solve, it can be done. If we can do it for Ukrainian people, we should be able to do it.