Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Calleary represents an area of County Mayo that is very similar to west Cork. They are two regions that rely very heavily on tourism. One could draw many parallels between the two regions. Westport is a bustling town in County Mayo; Clonakilty is a similar town in west Cork. Belmullet in County Mayo is similar to the Beara Peninsula in west Cork. There are many similarities. The point I am trying to get at is that there are many regions around Ireland, both on the coastline and inland, that rely heavily on tourism and hospitality, from the smaller cafés and pubs, up to the larger hotels.

Regional Ireland needs the survival of hospitality and in order to do that we need staff, to be able to recruit staff and to narrow the skills gap. There is a challenge and the Department needs to do everything possible to ensure that recruitment challenge is met so that the hospitality sector can survive into the future.

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