Mr. Tim Fenn:

I will address the issue of education and training and the attractiveness of the hospitality sector. This has been a major issue for the Irish Hotels Federation for a number of years. We have spent a great deal of time trying to restructure and change the direction we are going. Members might remember CERT, Council for Education, Recruitment and Training, for the tourism and hospitality industries. It was subsumed into Fáilte Ireland, the role of which is now more of a national tourism development authority. There has not been a structure in place and now SOLAS has been formed out of FÁS. SOLAS is the new further education and training authority and has within its remit the Apprenticeship Council, on which we will have a hotelier representing the hospitality sector. We have been engaging with the relevant Ministers and are about to meet Deputy Damien English, the new Minister of State with special responsibility for skills, research and innovation. We hope to ensure the hospitality sector receives its fair share under the Apprenticeship Council. We have been working with the VECs and the institutes of technology and have a very successful initiative in the Fáilte Ireland training centre on Roxoboro Road in Limerick, from which we are getting astonishing results. We hope the centre will be a template for other centres that will open around the country.

A big factor is re-engaging with students at second level, particularly in transition year, in order that we can reintroduce the industry to those who may not want to be involved in desk jobs all their lives. They can be given an insight into the variety and quality of jobs available in the hospitality sector. We are also working to restructure the industry in order that people will have a lifelong career structure. People may start in one area, but there should be no limit to where they can go and they can end up being the general manager.

We are working on the attractiveness of the industry and on the requirement to fill the 50,000 jobs that we see the potential for between now and 2020 or 2025. It is important that people who are resident in this country should have an equal opportunity to get those jobs. That is a very important part of the work we are doing at the moment.