Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Martin Cullen, sends his apologies to the House for his absence. On his behalf, I thank the Senator for raising this important issue and welcome the opportunity to address the Seanad on the role of Fáilte Ireland and its training centres.

As the Senator knows, Fáilte Ireland was established in 2003 under the National Tourism Development Authority, NTDA, Act which sets out the functions of the agency. Its clear focus in the provision of training, as set out in section 8 of the Act, is that it shall "encourage, promote and support the recruitment, training, and education and development, of persons for the purposes of employment in connection with the tourism industry in the State". This is a day-to-day function of the authority and neither the Minister nor the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism has a role in the day-to-day delivery of these services. The Department's role, as stated in its business plan, is to ensure the appropriate policies, resources and structures are in place to support that development of knowledge, skills and competencies, as the basis for quality service delivery in the tourism industry. The Minister is satisfied that this year's provisions, following the Estimates process, are adequate in that regard. He is also satisfied that the structures in place for the delivery of the services are appropriate.

Fáilte Ireland provides and funds tourism training and education through four directly operated training centres in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Limerick and in collaboration with ten institutes of technology. This activity focuses on craft education and is designed to produce graduates with an accredited tourism qualification which is validated on the national qualifications framework through the Further Education and Training Awards Council, FETAC. Fáilte Ireland engages in these programmes in order to build and maintain a relevant "skills pipeline" to meet the ongoing needs of the industry. The Minister points out that, unlike the former State agency, CERT, Fáilte Ireland has no explicit remit to train unemployed persons. FÁS remains the primary State agency tasked with that function.

Equally important to the tourism industry and growing in prominence is a further element in the Fáilte Ireland service portfolio which involves a range of in-company training, advisory and coaching activities. This work is carried out on-site in the tourism business and allows tourism owner-managers to access help and advice which is practical and tailored to the specific needs of each individual business. Through this form of engagement with the industry, Fáilte Ireland makes a strong contribution to raising the skills, competencies and productivity of those already working in the industry. In this way, the authority also contributes to the greater sustainability and survival of individual tourism enterprises. I think Senators will agree that this is a particularly important and correct emphasis in the current economic climate.

In the past two years Fáilte Ireland has been reviewing its range of training and business supports continually, primarily in response to the needs of the industry and in consultation with it. In so doing it has sought to rebalance its activities to respond to calls from the industry for increased in-company training and support. In some instances, this in-company work has allowed Fáilte Ireland instructors to identify common problems across a number of firms. Where this has occurred, staff from these firms have been invited to attend a course at one of the training centres specially designed to meet their needs. In this way, greater on-site involvement has enabled new courses to be developed and resulted in the training centres being used in new and innovative ways. This rebalancing of resources and activities has not resulted in an abrupt shift in direction by Fáilte Ireland. Neither has it produced an either-or outcome. Training continues to be carried on both within training centres and in-company fashion. The exact balance to be struck in each of the four training centres is determined by reference to local tourism industry needs.

The Minister believes it is important that training is available for those willing and eager to re-skill and get back into employment. Fáilte Ireland is playing a valuable role in this regard. However, it is also important that, as a Government, we do our utmost to maintain existing jobs in the industry by making every effort to ensure businesses continue to survive and trade their way through the current difficult trading conditions. In this regard, the initiatives taken by Fáilte Ireland to assist businesses through onsite training, as well as areas such as cost control, web presence and marketing, have been very well received by the industry and represent a good use of available resources.

In regard to the statistics requested by the Senator, the Minister has asked the Fáilte Ireland authority to supply this information to the Senator directly and I am confident it will do so in the next few days.