John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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166. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps that have been taken by the Government to date in 2022 to assist the restaurant sector in dealing with labour shortages and rising costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46454/22]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Responsibility for the hospitality sector is within the remit of Minister Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

According to the latest available national employment figures, from the CSO's Labour Force Survey, employment levels reached 2.55 million in Q2 2022. We now have more people employed in our country than ever before, while the quarterly unemployment rate stands at 4.4% - levels not seen since 2005.

It is especially welcome to see a strong recovery in the Accommodation and Food Service sector, with employment in this sector increasing by 40% in the past 12 months. In Q2 2022 employment had increased to 168,200; this consisted of 50,300 working in the accommodation sub-sector and 117,900 work in the Food and Beverage Service activities sub-sector. 57 percent of those working in the sector are female.

The impact of the pandemic was not equal across sectors, and those in the Hospitality sector was significantly affected. Our strong policy interventions during the pandemic – rapidly rolling out the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme and Pandemic Unemployment Payment – appear to have minimised any long-term labour market scarring in the sector.

The increase in employment was also supported by the approval of employment permits for the sector. Since the start of May, 1,345 applications for Chefs have been processed by my Department. 30 permits for hotel and accommodation managers have also been issued, out of an available 350 in the quota announced in October 2021, with a further 11 awaiting processing.

Of those Ukrainians who have arrived under the protection of the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive, over 4,000 have also been integrated into roles in the Accommodation and Food sector.

Through EURES Ireland, which is managed by the Department of Social Protection, Irish hospitality opportunities have been a focus of EU recruitment events, and the EURES Ireland team have been working closely with Spain in particular in seeking to recruit for vacancies in Ireland.

Intreo, the Department of Social Protection’s public employment services have continued ongoing engagement the restaurant and hospitality sector. Intreo provides a range of supports to employers looking to recruit staff. Employers can register their vacancies for free on Jobsireland.ie. Intreo have a dedicated Employer Engagement team. They support in promoting vacancies through a range of networks and via the JobsIreland platform. They can also match jobseekers to suitable vacancies. Intreo also supports training providers to recruit jobseekers to training opportunities.

Over the past eight months, the Employer Relations Division of Intreo has handled almost 1,800 vacancies, 850 promotions of training and recruitment opportunities and placed almost 460 in relevant training for the accommodation and food sector. This is in addition to direct referrals by Activation Case Officers who are working with jobseeking clients.

Intreo is currently rolling out a recruitment campaign nationally to target jobseekers and those who are inactive in the labour force. The #ReturnToWork campaign from 26th September to 7th October includes some 30 job and training fairs across the country to assist over 70 employers across a number of sectors, including the accommodation and food sector, to meet with people who are seeking to return to work. Details of the vacancies will be published on the Department’s free job matching platform www.jobsireland.ie and detail of all the events will be posted on the What’s On section of the website, supported by a social media campaign to promote awareness of the events planned over the two weeks.

Sustaining further increases in the hospitality workforce, however, will ultimately depend on the sector addressing its long-standing workforce recruitment and retention issues, which pre-date the Covid-19 pandemic.

I understand that the Tourism and Hospitality Careers Oversight Group, chaired by Fáilte Ireland under the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, is working to support these sectors in driving their long-term repositioning as appealing and rewarding career choices and ensure a future pipeline of talent.

In terms of rising costs, I recently met with stakeholders, including the Restaurants Association of Ireland, through the Tourism and Hospitality Forum, where the sector outlined their issues and the measures they feel are necessary to address these.

I think it is fair to say that this Government has not been found wanting when it has come to helping businesses get through difficult periods. The multibillion euro financial assistance provided by Government during the pandemic was unprecedented, whether it was help with businesses’ wage bill so they could keep staff on, their overheads, the introduction of a cheaper, easier way to restructure and survive than examinership; the commercial rates waiver, or the reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector.

In relation to energy costs, the Government has already implemented measures to help ease the impact on enterprises, including a temporary reduction in the excise duties charged, by 20 cent per litre of petrol, 15 cent per litre of diesel, and 2 cent in the excise duty charged on marked gas oil.

We are working on new proposals to help businesses with rapidly rising energy prices and I hope to be able to make a positive announcement about that in the Budget.

We’ll also be looking to raise awareness around energy efficiency, helping businesses reduce the amount of energy they use in the first place and improving take-up of the approximately 20 different schemes we already have in place for business.