Bewley chairman unable to find enough Irish staff

The chairman of the Campbell Bewley Group, Mr Patrick Campbell, has complained about being unable to find enough Irish workers to staff its operations. He also criticised Government and welfare agencies which "love not wisely but too well".

At the annual conference of the Irish Charities Tax Reform Group in Dublin yesterday, he said that last Sunday, "following a £5 million investment programme, we reopened our full cafe in Grafton Street, in the bosom of Dublin's inner city, where we were told there is up to 80 per cent unemployment.

"Having done everything a good company could do to recruit locally, we were obliged to go to Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, Britain and Scandinavia to find over 60 per cent of our staff."

The company had been unable to find enough workers for its coffee production in Hanover Street and its bakery in Portland Street, both also in the inner city. "The problem is shared by business right across Ireland, right across the industrial spectrum, and although it is exacerbated by excessive taxation on the lower-paid, it is not confined to the lower-paid."

He welcomed the opportunity to provide jobs for people from other countries. He fully accepted there were people who needed a safety net and an increase in support, but he could not accept "the use (or abuse) of that safety net as a hammock by some people who have the ability and opportunities to fend for themselves".

He had "a serious concern about the current emphasis on treating the symptoms of poverty rather than the cause". He believed that failure to distinguish want from need was not only leading to a waste of resources "but is generating a muted scepticism in the productive sector of society".

Mr Campbell criticised charitable and Government agencies which "love not wisely but too well". There was, he said, "a dependency/jobs industry within these various agencies and quangos, which is consuming resources with questionable results".

A few years ago, he said, the Conference of Religious of Ireland referred to the levels of unemployment as a scandal "citing the fact that whilst there was a shortage of jobs, there was plenty of work. Now there are plenty of jobs, but there are no workers, yet there are nearly a quarter of a million people on the unemployment register.

"Paying people who could work to keep them idle, while there are jobs available, does not make social or economic sense. Those who do work must earn significantly more (net) than the self-unemployed." Both Government and charitable sectors "have a certain nettle to grasp", he said.