Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When Senator Ned O'Sullivan referred to The Gathering, he might have claimed that Fianna Fáil was responsible for it. I am not sure. I know that it was responsible for the scattering, but I thought the concept of The Gathering was born in Dublin Castle. Regardless of who came up with it, The Gathering was a fantastic initiative at a time when the industry was struggling. We spoke earlier about the need to facilitate a community-driven approach by empowering local communities to take their fate into their own hands and put their best foot forward. Many communities throughout the country, particularly those off the beaten track, embraced the concept of The Gathering. There is scope for a repeat or a follow-up to it. It is a question of when it should happen. As Senator Ned O'Sullivan knows, many communities all over County Kerry, including Listowel in north Kerry, went out of their way to hold special events. It was very positive at a time when morale in the country was at a very low level. It gave people a little hope at a time when there was not much hope around the place.

I refer to the figures for British tourists for the first four months of the year. The number of visitors from Britain from January to April 2018 represented an increase of 1.1% on the figure for the same period in 2017. That does not sound like a lot, but last year there was an overall reduction of 5% in visitor numbers from Britain. We do not yet have the revenue figures for the period from January to April, but it is interesting that last year visitor numbers from Britain reduced by 5% and there was a reduction of 5.1% in revenue. The two figures were very close to each other. Given that visitor numbers have increased by 1.1%, as I mentioned, we could take it with a giant pinch of salt that the revenue figure will be closely aligned to it. The figure of 1.1% is not final. As the number of visitors increases, we hope the revenue figure will increase similarly. The good news is that in the first four months of the year, there were increases of 12%, 13% and almost 3% in the numbers of visitors from Europe, North America and other parts of the world, respectively. The indications at this early stage are very positive.

Regionality which has also been mentioned is at the heart of nearly everything we are doing. We are trying to ensure as many areas as possible benefit from tourism. We want to spread the benefits to areas which traditionally would not have seen much of them. That is why experiences such as the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland's Hidden Heartlands, Ireland's Ancient East and the Causeway Coastal Route in Northern Ireland are so important. They focus is on moving people away from the traditional hot spots into other areas that are visited less. The Causeway Coastal Route is a positive example of this.

I am a bit of an anorak when it comes to hotel prices. I am constantly on websites such as trivago.comto see what prices are. Hoteliers in Dublin sometimes get a bad name. There can be times when hotel prices are ridiculously high.I have seen encouraging evidence on many occasions and I encourage anyone to take a random look at hotel prices around the country, not just in Dublin. There is some really good value there also. It is even more important to highlight the good value that is out there and reward those who are putting forward very good value rather than to highlight the very high prices. We could talk ourselves out of the market even though there is very good value out there. I am not suggesting that we bury our heads in the sand, but when there is good value, it must also be highlighted. That is very important.

I have comprehensive information in my briefing notes on the skills issue and I will go through it as quickly as I can. Nearly every Member raised the issue of skills. Addressing projected skills demands requires a combination of measures, including the provision of appropriate direct enterprise support, entry-level training, advanced professional training, increasing the attractiveness of employment opportunities, and improving staff retention in certain occupations. Accordingly, Departments, agencies, education and training providers, industry bodies and employers each have roles to play. The Department of Education and Skills has overall lead responsibility for skills-development policy generally across all sectors, including hospitality and tourism. The Government's tourism policy statement, People, Place and Policy: Growing Tourism to 2025, and the Tourism Action Plan 2016-2018 recognise the key role training and education play in ensuring there is an adequate supply of skilled staff in tourism and in the development of talent accordingly.

The hospitality skills oversight group, under the aegis of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and chaired by the VFI, oversees skills development and promotion in the sector, including monitoring progress and implementing recommendations made in the report on future skills requirements in the hospitality sector in Ireland for 2015 to 2020, which was published by the expert group on future skills needs, or EGFSN. The expert group advises the Government on skills needs and labour market issues which impact on enterprise and employment growth. The hospitality skills oversight group involves key stakeholders, education and training providers and relevant Departments and agencies, including Fáilte Ireland. The oversight group is prioritising a number of actions arising from the key EGFSN recommendations. For its part, Fáilte Ireland provides complementary tourism-related business development and training supports in line with its responsibility to encourage, promote and support tourism as a leading indigenous component of the Irish economy. In line with the Tourism Action Plan 2016-2018, Fáilte Ireland is committed to working with the tourism industry and the wider education and training sector to implement the recommendations contained in the report on future skills requirements in the hospitality sector. In this regard, Fáilte Ireland participates in the hospitality skills oversight group which oversees skills development and promotion in the sector, including monitoring progress and implementing recommendations. The group's final report will be published shortly.

On chefs and culinary apprenticeships, the Department of Education and Skills has lead responsibility for skills development policy generally across all sectors and oversees the bulk of the required education and training provided nationally through the higher and further education and training bodies, namely, the institutes of technology and the education and training boards. There is a particular issue currently relating to a shortage of chefs. A suite of culinary apprenticeships is being developed and overseen by a collaborative consortium led by the Restaurants Association of Ireland and the Irish Hotels Federation and including education and training providers, Fáilte Ireland and other key industry stakeholders. The first of these apprenticeship programmes covers commis chefs. The commis chef apprenticeship programme secured QQI approval in July 2017 and its initial roll-out commenced in autumn of that year in Galway, Limerick and Clare followed by Kerry in March 2018 and Dublin and Kildare-Wicklow in April 2018, as Senator Lawlor pointed out. Cork, Cavan and Coláiste Íde are scheduled to commence the commis chef apprenticeship programme later this year. There has been an increase in the uptake of the apprenticeship with the most recent courses which commenced in Dublin and Kildare-Wicklow. The consortium will also progress the development of the further stages of culinary apprenticeship, namely, chef de partie, sous chef and executive chef. Good progress has been made on the development of the chef de partie apprenticeship programme with the occupational profile recently being approved by the Apprenticeship Council. It is expected that the programme will be rolled out in a number of institutes of technology in September 2018.

I will leave the briefing note there, but on top of that we have also been engaging with the Department of Business, Innovation and Enterprise and made great progress in February on freeing up the work permit rules to allow chefs from outside the EEA come to Ireland to provide their expertise and skills. We engage constantly with the Department to put in place the most responsive system possible to address skills shortages and to stay on top of our game. The people working in the industry are a crucial component of it. If one does not have skilled people, whether in the kitchen or front-of-house, the overall quality of the product suffers. That is something of which we are acutely aware. I apologise for reading all that but the documentation is detailed and technical in some parts. As such, that was the best way to reflect to the House what exactly is going on.

In response to Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh's contribution, I agree that Dublin Airport is seeing massive growth. The other airports are also growing, albeit in some cases their share of the overall Irish market is declining. One can be growing while one's share is falling. What we have done includes Wonders of the Wild Atlantic Way, a €1.8 million campaign in Britain, including in response to Brexit, which focuses on showing the proximity of airports on the western seaboard to six main urban centres in Britain, namely, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London. The six airports on the western seaboard are in Cork, Kerry, Shannon, Knock, Donegal and the city of Derry. The campaign is very supportive of those airports. We also have the PSO for Kerry and Donegal which is of critical importance. Capital funding for airports was announced recently and a huge tranche of that is going to the regional airports. It is very encouraging to see the new routes to places outside Dublin. Whereas the Hainan route to Beijing and the Cathay Pacific route to Hong Kong from Dublin are massively important and a huge win for Ireland, other routes are also opening from different parts of the world to different parts of Ireland. I was delighted to be in Cork for the Air France-KLM Paris launch two weeks ago. It is very encouraging. We have seen other routes coming on stream in other parts of the country too. There is new Berlin route from my county. It is critically important that this trend continues for Shannon, Knock and Donegal so that we see growth not only in Dublin.

When the new Government in 2011 put through its mini-budget on jobs, the 9% VAT measure received a great deal of attention. However, the airport tax was also scrapped then. Since then, the lift in and out of the Republic of Ireland has increased by 50%. In Northern Ireland where there is a £26 tax on flights in and out, the lift has increased in the same period by 2%. There is a definite correlation. The airport tax measure was very important to support the industry. I am not playing the blame game here, but as an island nation depending on lift for its tourism industry, a tax on airlines seeking to bring people in and out was ludicrous. While it is a contributing factor in our recent success which has gone under the radar to some extent, scrapping the airport tax was a progressive measure and I note to Senator Ó Donnghaile that it could be replicated in the context of North-South, all-island tourism. It might be very beneficial to Northern Ireland tourism. I note also that the Northern Irish VAT rate is 20% whereas it ours is 9%. Again, that measure has made a huge contribution to our success and it could be looked at in the North also.

I thank Senator Martin Conway for his very complimentary remarks. In this country, one normally only hears remarks like that at one's funeral, if one can hear them then at all. It is lovely to get such compliments. Senator Conway referred to Airbnb and the maintenance of standards. Fáilte Ireland is working closely with suppliers on that matter and developing new standards and regulation for the suppliers of accommodation. The world has changed hugely in the last couple of years having regard to accommodation and how people book it. I am very confident that Fáilte Ireland, as our tourism development authority, is getting on top of that as quickly as possible.

Senator O'Sullivan and I met in Westminster at a CHAMP event at the World Travel Market. We discussed many of these issues then.I know the Senator has a huge interest in the area. I thank Senator Grace O'Sullivan for raising the issue of slow tourism because it ties in with the overall ethos of the greenway strategy and what we are trying to achieve with that. There is a massive future for us in that area. For the people we are trying to bring here for a longer holiday, that is, the culturally curious and those who go off the beaten track, greenways have a massive part to play, which is why I referred to them as "goldways". The development of walking routes also offers big potential.

I was also asked about small communities. While going around the country I found a level of authenticity in small communities that one might not get in other locations. The culturally curious visitors will find this in Ireland's Hidden Heartlands, whose name will appeal to those who seek the authentic experience, with the word "hidden" lending an element of mystique. It has been well developed by Fáilte Ireland to date and I hope it will be a success like the other experiences, as it will benefit many small communities. Empowering local communities to tell their stories is one of the key things and we have to assist them with infrastructural supports to help with the narration of their stories. This is where Fáilte Ireland kicks in with funds.

A buddy system was called for and it may have a role to play so I will raise it with those concerned. On the point about lifeguards I believe that, at a minimum, every local authority should ensure that each blue flag beach has a lifeguard, though it is a matter for them. This week the RNLI has embarked on a new campaign to teach people the basic skill of floating in water. Our water safety agencies do a lot of good work but, unfortunately, last week we saw a huge number of tragedies all around the country in the hot spell. That is concerning and something we want to avoid.

I agree that we can do more as regards the Waterford Greenway. I was in Portlaw with Senator Coffey two weeks ago. Portlaw is only a few short kilometres off the greenway and we need to look at how we can link the greenways, which are expensive, with the little places off them. There does not necessarily have to be a brand new greenway costing €200,000 per kilometre. We can look at local tertiary roads which are rarely used, forest tracks, embankments or flood defences, which we currently see as expenses and a burden on our public finances but which we could look to get a return from by using them for something that contributes to society, industry and the economy.

I will check the diary to see how we are fixed as regards Féile an Phobail. A Kerryman always expects to be busy for the summer until the start of September and we will see how we get on in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in ten days' time.