Visitors say they weren't tipped off

Restaurants and bars have been required for some time to display menus in their windows: it is now almost as common to see the notice "Staff Wanted" displayed alongside them. The problem of finding - and keeping - service-industry staff is countrywide these days.

One strategy to address this problem was the issuing of work permits to a number of non-EU citizens, as part of the National Development Plan.

Newfoundland, because of emigration and recent trade links, was one of the countries chosen. FAS held a jobs fair there in April this year, and some 4,300 people attended over the two days of the fair. It was hoped that some 800 people would take up jobs in the tourism and service industry here, but with initial 12-week delays this end in processing the permits, less than half that number have arrived here since.

Like many ideas which sound good in theory, once put into practice the scheme revealed some weaknesses. Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara took the first nine people who were issued with permits. Five of those left within a couple of days: two went back to Newfoundland and the others went to Galway. They had all organised their visas through WORX, a St John's based agency.

At the time this reporter went to Renvyle, there were seven people there who had come at various times since April from Newfoundland. Some of those, such as Meg O'Dea (22) maintained that, prior to leaving, they had not been informed that tipping is not part of the Irish bar culture, and more or less optional in restaurants; that Renvyle is in a rural location, not an urban one; and that they had been told en-suite accommodation in the hotel itself would be part of the arrangement, which was not the case.

However, Anne Whelan of WORX, who talked to The Irish Times by phone, while agreeing that there was a problem with accommodation, insisted that "everyone was briefed on the no-tipping culture. If they said they weren't, they mustn't have been listening."

Lindsay Ferguson (24) has been working as a receptionist at Renvyle since the day after she arrived in April, and is one of the original nine. She had first been assigned to waitressing, but was asked if she would prefer the other job. "I love being here, it's a magical place," she says.

Ferguson is pragmatic, however, about her reasons for staying. "I wouldn't have stayed if I had had to waitress. It may be the same number of hours of work, but it's hard, hard work, and why would you do it when you're not being tipped for it? It's outrageous that people don't tip here."

Ferguson, like O'Dea, who is working in the kitchen, and Evan Saulnier (22), wine-waiter and runner, had never been to Ireland before. All three say they wanted to experience living in Ireland, and hoped they would also gain some extra work-experience. The hotel paid for their air-fares, which they are repaying in weekly instalments.

They all have anecdotal stories of people they've heard of, who came over on work permits and then never showed up at their hotels - whose owners had paid for their fares, and to whom WORX is responsible. Anne Whelan confirms that WORX has been stung for unpaid fares by a figure in the region of 10,000 Canadian dollars, but is hopeful that consciences will eventually trouble those who failed to pay back. "Or maybe I'm being naive."

Most of the other Newfoundlanders who came here - some 230 of them - went through the Galway-based CRC International agency, of which Dennis Moylan is the head of recruitment. CRC set up its own office in St John's earlier this year.

"About 25 people went home straight away," he reports. "Their expectations were too high." The others have stayed in Ireland - although not all of them turned up to their jobs as expected - and 75 more are expected here before the end of September. Those who came through CRC paid for their own tickets.

Moylan is aware of the problems which have emerged over the work permits, through the initial delays in being issued, the misunderstandings and people going AWOL. The visa problems have since been given bad press by the Newfoundland media, who interviewed those who returned early from Ireland. "It would be true to say that yes, the scheme has definitely not always worked out as it should," he says.

Meanwhile, at Renvyle, have any of the Newfoundlanders heard of the Celtic Tiger, the reason that they are here in the first place? None of them has, but they all have ideas as to what it might be.

"The Irish temper?"

"The name of a famous rock band?"

"Is it some old legend or myth?"

Well, that last guess at a definition is one the Government will be hoping doesn't turn out to be prophetic.