Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 295: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the progress made on the commitment in the programme for Government to implement in full the Fáilte Ireland Competing Through People Programme. [18092/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Fáilte Ireland Human Resource Development Strategy for Irish Tourism 2005-2010 'Competing through People' looks to people working in the tourism industry as a principal source of competitive advantage, and their skills as a key variable in delivering strong business results.

I am informed by Fáilte Ireland that the following progress has been made in implementing the strategy since the publication of the Programme for Government:

The National Development Plan 2007-2013 includes a Training and Human Resources sub-programme of €149m. €20m was provided in the 2007 estimates for the programme and a further €19m is being provided in the 2008 estimates.

Fáilte Ireland is broadening the skills development options available to both existing tourism industry team members and those wishing to join the team through innovative delivery methods and dedicated development centres combined with practical work experience. Two new programmes of accelerated training for chefs have recently been introduced.

To support the quality of the customer experience when engaging with front-line staff, a new programme in customer care has been designed and piloted across 30 tourism enterprises in the west of Ireland, and will be rolled-out nationally in 2008.

Agreement has been reached between Fáilte Ireland and the Irish Tour Operators Association (ITOA) in relation to the design and introduction of a new tour guide programme which will support the recruitment of multilingual tour guides to work in the coach tourism sector.

The Strategy made sixteen specific recommendations which were to be actioned by Fáilte Ireland in the period to 2010. To date thirteen of these have been fully implemented and a fourteenth is currently underway and will be concluded by the end of 2008. The remaining two (which relate principally to research programmes in the labour market) will be actioned in 2009.

An independent mid-term evaluation of progress against the targets set out in 'Competing Through People' was completed at the end of 2007. The review is being used by Fáilte Ireland to identify areas of best practice and areas where significant progress has been made in the implementation of the strategy together with areas where further progress is required.