Sebastien Quintin (20) could find only temporary, seasonal work in his native Brittany. In February, a relative put him in contact with Joanne Tanqueray, and two weeks later Mr Quintin started work as a trainee chef at the Slieve Russell Hotel in Co Cavan. "She did everything - even the plane ticket," the Frenchman says. "And she called me three or four times since I got here, just to make sure that everything's all right. It's been great. I've got a beautiful apartment for free. "It costs less to live here. I'm learning English and I'm learning a profession."
While we talked, Mr Quintin's Irish kitchen mates made noise in the background, to tease him. "It's like a party here," he says. "The management are really happy with the Frenchmen. We know how to cook things in ways they don't - it's all in the details." Five of the Slieve Russell's kitchen staff - one-third of the total - are French. The labour shortage in Ireland and continuing high unemployment in France have created a burgeoning industry in recruitment agencies that are reversing the centuries-old migration from Ireland to the continent. In the three months since it started, Ms Tanqueray's Brittany-based agency, Recruitment Connections, has sent 20 French people to the Republic to work as lorry drivers, barmen, waiters, porters, cooks and managers. Her current list includes computer experts, trilingual secretaries, mechanics, electricians and construction workers.
"The Irish like Brittany people and vice versa. They're all Celts," she says. An added advantage for the French, who expect to be looked after by their government, is that the E-III social security form provides an automatic linkup between the French and Irish systems.
The recruitment agency is an ideal, self-created job for Ms Tanqueray (37), the Welsh-born wife of a French naval officer and the mother of two small children. Before marrying Lt Cmdr Bruno Tanqueray, she earned a hotel management degree in Britain and worked for the British Hotel and Training Board as a trainer and troubleshooter. She participated in a pilot scheme with German counterparts to establish Europe-wide qualification standards for hotel workers. Later, for the transport and travel company Hogg-Robinson, she developed a link-up system for airline passengers and hotels, which is still used by Compuserve.
Ms Tanqueray does most of her work from home, by telephone, fax and e-mail. When she needs to meet clients, the local mayor is more than happy to lend her a room in the Landerneau town hall, 20 minutes inland from Brest. "Landerneau" has entered the French language as a synonym of "backwater". Quarries have shut down and the fishing business is not as lucrative as it once was, although the economy has begun to improve over the past two years.
Unemployment in the Finistere region remains far higher than the French national average, at up to 16 per cent, and local officials are grateful to Ms Tanqueray. When the regional newspapers Ouest-France and Le Telegramme published articles about her in February, she received 200 resumes in three weeks from Bretons hoping to work in Ireland. "I've met most of the people I have CVs for. They're so desperate for work, and there is none," she says. "I don't want them to be disappointed."
Mrs Tanqueray says she wants "only the best for my clients" and works only with deluxe fouror five-star hotels in Ireland. Through her close friend Colette Duggan in Co Clare - whose family, the Lynches, own five hotels - Ms Tanqueray has established a network of contacts. In fact, her recruitment agency began informally, putting Breton acquaintances in touch with potential employers. "I found there was so much demand on both sides that I decided to set up a company," she says. "The quality of candidates is very high, but in France a fivestar hotel can be very snobby. People from Brittany are initially intimidated by the idea of a fivestar hotel, because we don't have them here. But they settle in very quickly."
Ms Tanqueray only began charging a £120 (€152) application fee when she found that some applicants - particularly Parisians - lost interest and failed to take up positions she found for them. She also charges Irish employers 5 per cent of the annual wage - all contracts are for one year - which works out at an average of £840 per job filled.
Her website (recruitmentconnections.com), listing the first name, age, employment qualifications and dates of availability for more than 300 French people seeking jobs in Ireland, will come online on May 8th. The website is to a large extent the result of the difficulty she encountered persuading recruitment agencies in Dublin to form a partnership with her. But that has not discouraged Ms Tanqueray. She scours Irish newspapers - especially The Irish Times website - for job offers, then telephones on behalf of her French clients. She has placed most of them outside Dublin, because housing in the capital is so expensive.
"So many Breton towns are twinned with Irish towns that we are also considering working through the twin-town system, seeking local Irish people who will volunteer to host French workers," Ms Tanqueray says.
Most of Ms Tanqueray's clients are in their 20s, but she also receives applications from middle-aged workers who dream of retiring in Ireland. "There are an awful lot of people who feel fed up with the bureaucracy and taxes in France. They want to see what life is like in an `AngloSaxon' country, and Ireland pulls them," she says.
For every job-seeker placed by Ms Tanqueray, she says, there are several others who simply board the ferry in Roscoff and look for work on arrival in Cork.
