Mr. Tony Donohoe:

We are aware of requests from the sector. To give the Deputy an indication of how we do our business, we get multiple requests from different Departments across the system and from different sectors to produce reports. It is a small secretariat within the Department that manages and runs this and there is also a very finite budget. Therefore, we have to make decisions based on metrics that we have pre-decided in terms of the case that is made. Indeed, as I said earlier, we are considering our work programme this morning and it is something we come back to regularly.

Choices have to be made. When we produce a report, because it is very easy to produce these reports and for them to sit on a shelf, we have been much more active in the implementation area of the findings and in assembling an implementation group for at least two years after each report is published, although in some cases it is just to oversee the implementation of the recommendations. That is what has happened with hospitality, where our involvement has just come to an end on that implementation phase. It is a case of analysing where the challenges are and then overseeing an implementation phase. That is definitely what has happened with hospitality, plus the fact it has to make its case along with the other competing demands. I know that, in employment terms, hospitality and retail between them account for almost one quarter of the workforce, so they are very important and significant sectors. Overall, we go through a process of managing our resources.

Dr. Power might have something to say on the implementation of the last hospitality skills report.