Much of the industry relied on workers from abroad to fill vacancies.
Hospitality groups have called on the Government to launch an overseas recruitment campaign.
They say need to help fill 40,000 vacancies before the busy summer months.
Many people left the hospitality industry over the past two years.
A lot of departures were down to an unreliable work pattern due to the pandemic.
Time for the Irish Government to lead international recruitment trade missions in order to recruit urgently required skilled staff in sectors of the economy suffering for staff shortages.
It happened in the 1990s in sectors like Construction, Hospitality & Food Processing— Adrian Cummins 🇮🇪🇪🇺 (@adriancummins) February 1, 2022
Many pub and restaurant workers from abroad have also left Ireland to go back to their home country.
Restaurants Association Chief Executive, Adrian Cummins says extra labour needs to come from outside the EU.
"There are other countries across the EU that have the same problems with filling vacancies within hospitality."
"We would like to have a government-led, ministerial led, trade mission to countries that we can attract labour into Ireland."
