'Chefs are particularly hard to find': Hospitality feels heat due to staffing crisis
Operations manager at Durty Nellie’s in Bunratty, Co Clare, Maurice Walsh, said positions such as chefs, managers and supervisors are particularly difficult to recruit at present. Picture: Brendan Gleeson
Restaurant and hotel owners across Munster say the recruitment of chefs and other hospitality staff is now taking several months, with many forced to recruit staff from abroad as the tourism season kicks off.
Owner of O’Connor’s Seafood restaurant in Bantry, Co Cork, Shane Spillane, said prior to the Covid pandemic, he would have received up to 100 applications for a post.
“Now, you would be lucky to get five for one position,” he said.
Mr Spillane recently hired two senior chefs from Poland and Latvia. He said his head chef left his business last October and he only managed to replace him five weeks ago.
He said: “Chefs are particularly difficult to find.”
Mr Spillane said: “The cost of staffing is also gone through the roof — with the shortage of staff, they are now a commodity.”
He added, however, that hospitality staff deserve to have increased wages.
Operations manager at Durty Nellie’s in Bunratty, Co Clare, Maurice Walsh, said positions such as chefs, managers and supervisors are particularly difficult to recruit at present.
Mr Walsh said there was a lack of experience among people applying for positions, while there are also increased wages to contend with.
And he said there are also issues with work permits for staff being recruited from outside the European Union, pointing out it can take up to seven months for personnel to arrive in Ireland to take up a post after being successful at the interview stage.
In Youghal, Padraig Hennessy of Clancys bar and restaurant agreed that chefs are very difficult to find.
He said: “In the pandemic, a lot of people changed industries when the sector was closed down, and they went for a better lifestyle.”
Vice-chairman of the Shannon region of the Irish Hotels Federation Dermot Kelly said there was a big issue in the region, particularly in relation to the recruitment of chefs. And he said hotels with spas are also finding it difficult to recruit health and beauty staff since reopening after the Covid pandemic restrictions.
“Some hotels are having to limit the number of guests they can have because of a shortage of chefs” he said.
In recent days, chef Paul Flynn tweeted about the difficulties he has found in staffing his restaurant, The Tannery, in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
He said: “In our 25 years in business we have never gone through such a staffing crisis. Thank goodness for TY students who kept us afloat this spring. Absolutely no waiting staff available.”
Earlier this year, research by Fáilte Ireland estimated there were up to 40,000 vacancies in the tourism sector as a result of the Covid pandemic restrictions.
A study of the hospitality industry by Unite trade union last June, called 'Hidden Truths — The reality of work in Ireland’s hospitality and tourism sector', highlighted a number of concerns.
Participants in the study said “they were regularly denied basic rights and entitlements and regularly subjected to abusive behaviour”.
The study noted: “The majority experienced significant financial loses during the pandemic, and most don’t see any prospect of staying in hospitality in the long term.”
Tourism and hospitality coordinator of Unite, Julia Marciniak, said workers in the sector are hit by inflation and expensive accommodation costs in Ireland, especially in Dublin.
She said: “People are working full-time jobs and living in poverty.”
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