Ms Catherine Flanagan:

I will speak to the last item first, if that is okay. It is about careers and opportunities. As an association, we have taken a particular interest in career development and education and in developing specific education to support careers at visitor attractions. We know many courses are available for tourism and hospitality around the country. In recent years, universities have experienced a decline in applications, which we would like to see reversed. Fáilte Ireland has done much work to promote tourism and hospitality as appealing careers to the transition year cohort, which we have also leaned into, with work experience and early career mentoring. It is clear that there is work to be done in identifying the best way to continue to attract a talented workforce into our sector, which offers super opportunities and very transferable skills.

While we were well supported during the Covid lockdown, with the employment wage subsidy scheme which enabled us to retain core staff, there was inevitably some leakage from the sector into other areas where people were able to work full-time when we were experiencing periods of closure. We have work to do to rebuild the sector. Much has been done. The AVEA does not have a particular position on apprenticeships but we are keen to be active in engaging with all generations of workers because we are a sector that offers great flexibility for part-time workers, younger workers, older, experienced workers, volunteers and international workers with language skills. The more attractively we can position ourselves, the better. We have vacancies that we would love to fill with talent. They are exciting and beautiful places to work.