Government must act quickly to save industry, says hotel chief
Speaking at the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Shannon College of Hotel Management in Shannon, he called for a strategic five-year plan to be put in place for Irish tourism.
The managing director of the Griffin Hotel Group said that the recent Government measures to boost tourism “are a step in the right direction”.
“I hope, though, that it wouldn’t be the first of a series of kneejerk reactions — a strategic approach is required. Every single aspect of the tourism industry has to be picked asunder with a proper strategy in place at the end.”
“The biggest failure of the last government was the lack of any decision making. It was drift management and where does drift management work in any walk of life?” he added.
Mr Griffin said that current debate about the corporate tax rate and the Croke Park agreement continues while Middle Ireland perishes.
“I know the pain. I feel the pain every day I get up because I work seven days a week,” he added.
The NUI Shannon College of Hotel Management is the only third-levelcollege in Ireland with a 100% employment rate for graduates and Mr Griffin is a graduate of 1970 and a patron of the class of 2011.
The former All-Ireland winning hurling manager with Wexford told an audience of 300 yesterday that the issue of rates “is the elephant in the room in the hotel industry”.
He said the annual rates bill for his three hotels is €500,000.
“The rates burden for businesses is too heavy, it has to be sorted. The system is bankrupt.
“People are in denial about rates, people can’t afford to pay rates and the government is going to have to make a decision on it,” he said.
Mr Griffin told the audience that he has not missed a day at work in the past 18 years.
“I want to work. That’s all I want to do. I started with four staff, ended up with 400 and back to 300. How much further we will go back I don’t know,” he added.
On the performance of the Griffin Hotel Group, Mr Griffin said: “It has been tough. You can’t swim against the tide.”
Shannon College of Hotel Management is a subsidiary of the DublinAirport Authority and in his address director Philip Smyth said the tourism industry is being strangled by the Joint Labour Committee system preventing the creation of thousands of jobs in the sector.
Mr Smyth said that Sunday trading has become a write-off for manyoperators in the industry because of the committee.
Under the Joint Labour Committee, minimum terms and conditions of employment in the catering sector above and beyond the national minimum wage are set, including premium payment for weekend and overtime.
“Tourism employment has dropped from 243,666 in 2007 to 180,000 last year.
“But I truly believe that abolishing the Joint Labour Committee and changing perceptions, could evendouble the additional 21,000 jobs predicted in the government jobs initiative for the tourism sector by 2015,” he said.
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