Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy said, I am aware staff retention is an issue and am delighted Fáilte Ireland is delivering on a number of strategies and is working closely with the industry, education providers and other State agencies to address the recruitment and retention challenges in the tourism sector. A recruitment for reopening webinar event was delivered on 30 April for tourism and hospitality businesses and more than 1,000 businesses registered for this event. Each business received a toolkit to support the recruitment challenges, including sourcing opportunities.

A social media campaign is live for the tourism sector and is targeting jobseekers on both Facebook and Instagram. A schedule of targeted content will run through the summer on Fáilte Ireland's tourism career websites. State agencies, such as SOLAS, through the education and training boards are delivering new sector-specific support, on their skills to advance programmes in conjunction with industry, with a number of higher education institutes continuing to develop new Springboard courses and deliver additional skills. These programmes received funding as part of the human capital initiative to retain and regain qualified staff.

I reiterate that labour law and workplace conditions are a matter for my colleague, An Tánaiste, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. He also is keen to make progress on the living wage.

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