John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I reinforce that message to the staff in the Department and in offices throughout the country. I would be very interested in the data the Minister referred to, including a granular breakdown of the numbers who returned to work but not to their previous occupation. In the case of the hospitality sector, anecdotally, the story around Dublin, including in my constituency of Dublin South-West, is that a good proportion of staff returned to pubs and restaurants but, in addition, a significant number, because of the uncertainty right through the lay-off period and the continued uncertainty arising from ongoing lockdowns, decided they had enough of hospitality. They could not be sure of what the future holds for the sector and they need certainty in regard to their profession, career progression and income. What steps can be taken to offset that? Those people are clearly lost to hospitality and that is manifesting itself in restaurants, where a casual observer might think that empty tables means an establishment is not busy. When we delve into it, however, the reason the tables are not occupied is that the kitchen does not have the capacity to serve customers at those tables. This will be an issue as tourists return to the country. What plans does the Government have in place to deal with that?

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