RECENT reports all suggest that the hotel and catering industry is experiencing a considerable recruitment problem. In short, there are not enough suitably qualified people in the labour market to fill all the vacancies being generated by Ireland's rapidly expanding tourism industry.

When you consider the facts - that tourism is now worth about 8 per cent of GNP and should overtake agriculture as our most important industry by 1999 it's easy to establish that Ireland's small labour market cannot cope with filling skilled vacancies in an industry that is growing almost four times faster than the average worldwide.

"We are not producing enough graduates to fill the large number of skilled vacancies in the market at the moment," says Pat McCann, president of the Irish Hotels Federation and group operations director with Jurys. "There are just too many vacancies; primarily in the craft areas like barstaff, waitors and chefs.

"I know that CERT have plans to increase the numbers available on their courses and attempts are being made to encourage other colleges to do so as well. This will have an impact on the recruitment situation."

However, falling applications to some CERT courses have led to accusations that the tourism industry has a poor image with the public, particularly in the perception of it being an industry with low pay, poor career prospects and long and unsociable hours.

"There is no doubt that people in the industry work unsociable hours," says McCann. "But this is the case in other areas of the economy these days. Many retail outlets, for example, open on Sundays. Regarding low pay, I don't think rates are low and setting a minimum wage wouldn't really help things either."

In an attempt to improve the public's perception of working in the industry, the Irish Hotels Federation launched last November what it calls a Quality Employer's Programme. All hotel managers in Ireland should now possess a copy of this large document and they have up to 14 months to implement its recommendations, although these are not binding as yet.

"This programme, says McCann, has made important recommendations in the area of recruitment, training, personnel relations, rostering pension schemes, conditions of employment and contract. As it's implemented, we expect the perception of working in the industry to improve."

Pat McCann also says that, although the situation has improved somewhat in the last four years, there are still not enough people with foreign language fluency working in the industry. "There needs to be greater training in this area, including in-house training undertaken by various companies," he says.

A conference being held by the Irish Hotels Federation - on February 17th in Killarney will produce a much-awaited report on the recruitment and technical requirements of the industry. It should make interesting reading for all the various colleges and agencies involved in training for this sector.