Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and I concur with a lot of the sentiment expressed in the debate. This is an important sector of our economy and it is one in which we must look at the protection and retention of jobs in what, as Senator Murphy rightly said, is an energy crisis in which the costs have escalated. I will give the example of the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery, where the chief executive, Neil Grant, has been widely reported as saying that their energy bill went to €24,699, from €8,333 in 2021, in the calendar month of July. Acknowledging the huge Covid supports Government gave in the pandemic and recognising the temporary business energy support scheme being put in place, which is worth €1.25 billion, I ask that we look at how we could backdate that to the summer months, especially given that it was an issue for the sector.

I appreciate that there are issues around the costs associated with hotel rooms in Dublin in some cases and with the way in which, to many of us, there is a reality that there was a gargantuan increase in prices in the capital city as opposed to outside the capital. We need to look at the VAT retention rate from a number of sources. We gave the media a 0% VAT rate on newspaper sales.I do not believe this will save the newspaper industry or physical newspapers but that is a different matter. I ask that as a Government we look at the totality of the hospitality sector in the round, as the Ministers, Deputies Michael McGrath and Donohoe, are fond of saying. I ask that we look at decoupling food from rooms. Senator Cassells is correct. The price of a steak should not go through the roof as it has done. We need to look at this as an example.

I do not share the dystopian view that Senator Black has of the sector. The Government has made huge changes in pay and conditions, the minimum wage, tips and the whole context of pay, remuneration and conditions. We should accept and acknowledge this. Part of the difficulty, as Senator Keogan said, is that people do not want to work antisocial hours any more. People are migrating from hospitality to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday where they do not have to be discommoded from their family and friends, they have their weekends for themselves or they do not have to work on an all-Ireland final day or a concert day or an evening when their friends are out enjoying themselves. This is an issue on which we must have a debate. I have asked for this debate in the House as a member of the labour panel. I have called for a debate on work and the nature of work in a new modern Ireland and how work has evolved. We are at near full employment but if we walk around our capital, Cork city or any part of Ireland there are signs in multiple places looking for staff. This is something we need to address as a Government and as a society.

I welcome the Government's commitment to the hospitality sector. I ask that prior to February there is extensive consultation and that we look at the totality of the hospitality sector. It is about the protection of jobs. It is about the ancillary and auxiliary jobs around it. It is about the creation of a céad míle fáilte.