The employment crisis in the hospitality sector.

The industry is also subsidised by the taxpayer through social welfare, thousands of people in hospitality on low pay qualify for the Family Income Supplement payment. Its basically the government admitting that the industry pays so badly that they have to top up employees wages in order for them to survive.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/social_welfare_payments_to_families_and_children/family_income_supplement.html

But your assumption is that every hospitality owner is greedy.

Whereas in reality is that it's a very tight margin industry very exposed to market changes, with a customer base that are very price aware.

But yeah sure go ahead, fcuk them, let's shink the industry instead of trying to grow it, let's put plenty of people out of work, let's put supplier and all the ancillary parts of the economy that go with hospitality on the back foot.

Not every pub owner is.. but my local as I’ve said, prices have skyrocketed, both food and drinks, pints are six, main course about 15 …yet the owners last year bought their 6th pub… the Independent reporting this city centre popular spot was sold to them for 3 million…

meanwhile we are supposed to feel sorry for them.

If they cant afford to pay their staff enough then they shouldnt be in business. Let them close up and sell the premises to someone else who can make use of it without relying on government handouts to pay their staff.

I don't see why hospitality businesses should be treated any better than any other business. If a construction site wasnt paying workers enough would you be defending them? Or a factor? Or a call centre? Why are pubs and restaurants treated by you like a sacred cow?

Vat decrease has been passed on to the public and the public love it, no surprise there.

Regardless of what people say around here MUP is not about pubs.

Many industries turn a blind eye to work practices, nursing homes, meat packing for example.

I was looking for specific supports they get not things they do and get away with.

Is there a specific hospitality visa for South Americans to come to Ireland ?

As I understand the issues, running costs are too high for targeted profit models to work so higher prices have to be charged but then wages cannot rise as this will feed into even higher costs. Solution? Well, firstly, the question as to whether there are in fact too many hospitality businesses in Ireland is one that does not get put out there by the industry; they seem to be clinging to this idea that we could go back to what we were in 2018/2019 in terms of business levels - this is utter nonsense. We need to see some consolidation and haircuts in the industry.

Personally, I think the reason there is a wage shortage isn't just to do with low pay and poor conditions but is also due to the supply and demand imbalance; in effect that we have too many restaurants/cafes/pubs/hotels versus the demand that is there and the lack of employees mirrors the lack of demand, which would apply to mean that filling the vacant positions right now (which isn't going to be possible btw) would just mean that there are a lot of people employed in a lot of businesses that are competing for a smaller market share than they can realistically garner in a manner which makes them viable.

your situation don’t add up, paying staff a fair wage, and charging fair prices for products and services does not mean they’ll be closing pubs especially after spending 3 million on the 6th one ….

The other thing is that the hospitality "market" is only shrinking because of costs - a weaker currency (not within our control) or a lower cost of living would make it affordable to pay everyone less, and also mean cheaper inputs, and peoples purchasing power remains the same. The end result is tourism to ireland is more attractive and competitive worldwide, we get more tourists, and hospitality sector gets more business providing more opportunities for staff.

It's not a new idea - countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece have all been doing this for decades. Keeping the cost of living down aggressively fuels a tourism boom (although those countries also benefit from climate) - likes of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria all benefit from low cost of living driving western tourism there also, without the sunny med climate.

I did hotel work as a student starting as a kitchen porter, then bar staff then night porter.

Dave10 tells us Irish people think it's beneath them and they consider they are too good for these jobs. Who was doing these jobs for decades before open EU borders?

There is no pension, casual hours and even if you become permanent you are expected to work unpaid hours. Do you want to spend 40 years at that and have your body broken from hauling wheelie bins of glass down to the cellar? Finish at 3am and be told to be in for 7am and if mention European working time directive and minimum rest period you get laughed at.

So as a student I did something else that will be widely mocked by some here. I left hotels and went to McDonalds who treated me well, never ever messed up my wages and never asked me to work for free. Some did training programs but I knew it would be over for me after college.

McDonalds are cleaner than 4* star hotels and realy do not do enough to emphasise and advertise their hygiene. Much better employer than all the Irish hotels I worked for. Including the one who didn't pay us as agreed and so had to bring us in to get cheques from some other account. Meanwhile the bosses spent the day in corporate hospitablity at Galway races.

Am long gone out of this area now have an office drone job. Irish hotels cannot get Irish staff as they treat them like dirt.