Public-service and tourism staffing
Senator Sheahan seeks public-service recruitment funding, highlighting staff shortages at Muckross House and Gardens and the closure of its visitor centre as obstacles to tourism.
I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, to the House for a debate on recruitment in the public service. As many sectors in the public service are suffering, I do not have to name them. People know the sectors about which I am talking, but I want to make a case for one, in particular. Report after report and projections-----
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There are three debates ongoing and I might rule later that those who interfere with the progress of the Order of Business will not be allowed to speak. Members can have it one way or the other. Senator Tom Sheahan has been standing for over one minute and no one has had the courtesy to listen to the point he is trying to make or the question he wants to put to the Leader. I will allow him another minute.
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The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform should release funds for recruitment in the public sector. I will bring it down to the health service and make it parochial. We are always talking about how we can enhance our tourism product and, in fairness to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, he has brought forward many initiatives. The trajectory in the tourism scheme is upwards, but I want to bring to mind staffing levels in Muckross House and Gardens in Killarney. Today there are 350 bus tours awaiting allotments to take a tour of the house because the number of guides is down from 22 to 11. It is a no-brainer because 350 buses, with 40 tourists each, equate to 12,000 people, which at €10 per head comes to €120,000. It would be cost neutral. The other point is that the national park is becoming dilapidated and unkempt because staff are not available to maintain it.
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Where is Senator Paul Coghlan?
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The Senator is trying my patience. Since she came into the Chamber, she has interrupted proceedings four times and also had a chat with Senator David Norris.
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The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, has been trying to obtain funding, but we must direct this request to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to make funding available to recruit staff. The Muckross House Visitor Centre has been closed for the past three years. If we are trying to build and grow our tourism product, that is not the way to go about it.