Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

3 o’clock

The Minister of State quoted the recent report by the expert group on future skills needs. I want to flag one particular aspect of that report, because I have received correspondence about a shortage of chefs. The Restaurants' Association of Ireland says there is a shortage of up to 5,000 chefs in this country, so the situation is coming to a critical juncture. When frequenting pubs and restaurants, we can see for ourselves that the vast majority of staff, particularly chefs and other kitchen staff, are non-Irish nationals. They have come to this country to fill a void. Has that problem appeared on the Minister of State's radar? The Restaurants' Association of Ireland has called for the re-establishment of CERT, the Council for Education, Recruitment and Training. CERT ran valuable courses and produced chefs and people with associated skills, of which there is currently a huge deficit.

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