Lack of chefs forcing restaurants to close

The rise in tourism – coupled with the lack of chefs being trained domestically – has forced some restaurants to close on Monday and Tuesdays.

That’s according to the Galway native who heads up the Restaurant Association of Ireland.

RAI chief executive Adrian Cummins revealed that Ireland is only producing 1,800 chefs a year – but 5,000 chefs new chefs are needed, per annum to staff the industry.

And as a result, restaurants around the city and county are having to close for two days a week because of staff shortages.

The RAI is now calling for the reintroduction of CERT to tackle the lack of skilled labour for the Irish service industry. CERT was a training programme specifically set up you to train people for the Irish Tourism sector, explained Mr Cummins.

“CERT was the dedicated agency for training and development of tourism and hospitality in Ireland,” he said.

“They coordinated everything. They used to rent seasonal hotels in Connemara and the west of Ireland and turn them into training centres in the winter time.

“The people would come out with training in bar skills, reception and kitchen courses and that needs to be brought back. We need a coordinating body to do all of that,” he added.

While it is unlikely that this type of training centre will ever be brought back, Mr Cummins believes a ‘slimed down version’ of CERT should be reintroduced to help with the logistical issues that are stifling the restaurant sector.

“There are no winners in this at the moment, everybody is a loser. The loser is the Irish economy at the end of the day. We just don’t have a coordinated plan. We’re not good at joined-up thinking around our sector,” he said.

“We think it’s everywhere now. We’re getting phone calls from all parts of the country, we’re getting calls from urban, rural, large business, small business.

“Everyone is being hit by the same thing. This means that the local pub that’s doing lunches or dinners in the afternoon or evening, they can’t get a chef for two days a week or even has a skeleton team,” he continued.

CERT, in this new role, would coordinate training and implement planning rather than providing the actual training courses, said Mr Cummins.

Institutions, such as GMIT, would still be responsible for training professional chefs through their Culinary Arts Programme.

But Head of Culinary Arts in GMIT, Gerry Talbot is unconvinced whether CERT is the answer to this issue.

“I’m not sure if the reintroduction of CERT is the answer. A chef is not the easiest job and tourism in Ireland is booming, so it’s hard to fill all the positions,” he said.

“I think better wages would certainly help but also better working conditions. Nobody comes into this industry expecting it to be easy. And I think that people who do work in the industry are very hard workers, but certainly, I think we have a little work to do on working conditions,” he added.