Job-seekers criticise Intreo over ‘joke’ of a jobs fair in town

INTREO has come in for fierce criticism from people looking to get employment in the catering industry out of a jobs fair in Wexford town.

‘Out of all the catering establishments in County Wexford only two showed up,’ said a man, one of dozens who queued in Anne Street for last Thursday’s jobs fair.

‘It was a joke,’ he said, adding that the Talbot and White’s hotels were only ones represented at the fair.

Another person said that with the ‘jobs fair’ took place in the lobby of the social welfare office ‘where people were signing on’ there was a lot of confusion and the event ‘looked like it had been thrown together’.

Neither of those in contact with this newspaper wished to be identified.

Asked by this newspaper to comment on the complaints, a spokesperson for the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection said the ‘Hospitality Recruitment morning was a Jobs Week event which had to be re-scheduled due the adverse weather’.

‘It was a dedicated Hospitality sector event which the Department arranged with a number of Wexford hotels to highlight local vacancies in the sector’.

‘There were three HR representatives in attendance at the event recruiting on behalf of all of six hotel properties, with several vacancies on offer.’

She said the Department has not received any complaints from attendees in respect of the Jobs event.