Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, to the House and thank her for her strong voice on the 9% VAT rate campaign, which was vital to the hospitality sector, not alone in Galway but across the country. I have got very positive feedback on that over the past 24 to 48 hours.

I welcome this topic. It is one which, it goes without saying, is vital to hundreds of thousands of workers across the country, thousands of SMEs and, indeed, the Irish economy as a whole. I have worked in this sector for over 20 years so I have considerable first-hand experience. While it may never have been easy to find qualified staff, it was always possible and manageable. We have had staff who have been with us for over 20 years, so I am very familiar with the loyalty of staff. To state the completely obvious, if you treat people right and treat them the way you yourself would want to be treated, there does not tend to be an issue. I think all Members of the House will know that the business performs better as a result. That goes without saying.

Unfortunately, as Fáilte Ireland has estimated, there are currently approximately 40,000 vacancies across the sector, 9,600 of those at senior level, representing a quarter of the total. Many particular positions are difficult to fill, including senior managers, chefs, bar staff, waiting staff, middle management roles, mixed senior-level managers in hotels, sales and marketing professionals, and even marketing professionals and coach drivers. It is difficult. There has been a lot of talk about the impact Covid-19 had on the sector generally, which all Members will recognise was extremely damaging, but I think it has been somewhat overlooked that one of the major issues the pandemic caused the sector was the loss of thousands of valuable, qualified staff who had considerable experience and expertise within the sector. Speaking first-hand, I believe they are irreplaceable, and they are currently not out there. Those staff could no longer rely on businesses to open due to public health measures. Obviously, that was not sustainable, despite significant Government supports. We are talking about people who had mortgages, people with families and people who had considerable expenses they had to meet. I know that first-hand from the medical devices sector in Galway, which employs thousands of people in Galway city.There were opportunities there and the reality is that whether it was the chef or the front of house manager, because the business was closed for so long, they had options. When you go in for a structured 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. or 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. job, there probably is a better quality of life in some cases. Thankfully, there are positive signs coming back.

As I outlined, I know from businesses across Galway city and county that there was a significant loss in head chefs, hotel manages and bar managers who took other opportunities. I referred to medical devices companies, whether it be the likes of industry or the likes of Medtronic, Boston Scientific or Creganna Medical, and the huge opportunities there. People are settled in their roles and not returning to the hospitality sector for the most part.

I would engage with the VFI, LVA, RAI and the hotels, naturally. The VFI noted that labour shortages have resulted in – we all see this in our own areas – reduced trading hours. Places are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays or whatever the case may be, which never happened before. That can be to the detriment to certainly life in rural Ireland as well. One even sees that businesses close to Leinster House are not open Mondays and Tuesdays. The staff shortages have resulted in additional hours for existing staff, the training of new staff who are inexperienced, total closure for a period to allow existing employees to take annual leave, increasing wage costs to meet expectations of existing employees, and an impact on the quality of service, customers' expectations of the hospitality setting and the breadth of offerings across the sector. The LVA stated that in a survey last year, 90% of respondents noted it was difficult to recruit staff, 84% remarked that staff had moved to other industries, 90% noted concerns about staff shortages for 2022 and 80% remarked the uncertainty in the industry was a primary motivation for the loss of staff since March 2020. Further stakeholder groups, such as the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, the Irish Hotels Federation and RAI highlight the inability of the domestic labour market to fulfil the skills shortage observed in the tourism and hospitality industry.

ITIC states that with lower levels of unemployment in Ireland, it would be necessary to concentrate certain efforts to recruiting talent from other EU or non-EU countries. RAI calls on Departments and Fáilte Ireland to engage with industry to bolster a recruitment drive, including targeted international recruitment fairs.

Going through the report, there was negative feedback from employees in the sector, particularly in the Unite survey. That is not something I have seen in my experience within the sector. I suspect a small minority of employers engage in such acts or activities. If someone is an employee within the sector and has seen employees in engaging in bullying or other such actions, which are totally unacceptable, it is probably highlighted more within the union. In my experience in west Galway, the percentage of employers who treat staff the way they should be treated is in the high 90s. That is unacceptable. Nonetheless, it is something we need to be aware of it. There is no point in brushing over it.

I welcome the committee’s recommendation that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media should engage with Cabinet colleagues with a view to nominating a single Department to retain direct oversight of and the responsibility for all aspects of Ireland’s tourism and hospitality sector to include working conditions, training and recruitment. The recruitment point needs to be noted. The committee recommendation that the Minister engages with Cabinet with a view to establishing an independent body with specific oversight of and the responsibility for Ireland’s hospitality sector, with functions similar to those of Fáilte Ireland in respect of the Ireland tourism sector is interesting and I strongly support this. We must remember the tourism and hospitality sectors are even more important to regional and rural economies. Fáilte Ireland estimates that the tourism sector generated 67% of pre-Covid employment in regional and rural Ireland, which reflects this.

I am conscious of the clock and I am sure the Leas-Chathaoirleach will tell me about it in a second. I will not go through all of the recommendations, but they all deserve consideration and address key issues within the sector, including pay and conditions, as was outlined by Deputy Smyth, expediting visas for foreign workers and the need the for further research and condition in the sector and so on.

I thank the committee for the report. I thank my colleague, Senator Carrigy, and the committee for their hard work in preparing this important report, and particularly, the Chair, Deputy Smyth, and the work she put in, and the secretarial staff.