The interests of the services sector can be prioritised at national level only by the appointment of a government minister to represent it, the chairman of IBEC's services council, Mr Peter Malone, said yesterday.

Launching a new policy document, Services Industry - The Way Forward, Mr Malone said a post of minister of state with responsibility for services should be created to champion a sector which now employs almost one million people and contributes two-thirds of GDP. IBEC's services council argues that a national strategic plan is now required for a sector which outweighs manufacturing and agriculture in the numbers it employs and the sustainability of its growth. "At the present growth rate, this figure will reach 1.4 million - the equivalent of a 40 per cent increase - over the next 15 years," the document states.

Mr Malone, who is also managing director of the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, said the recruitment crisis remained the biggest problem facing the sector. Up to 1,000 vacancies were immediately available in tourism-related service industries, including restaurants and pubs. He said there had to be action on "the maximisation" of the workforce to ensure that a sufficient number of entrepreneurs emerged in the sector.

"The only way you get action is by having a minister," he said.

IBEC's services council is also calling for reductions in "the tax burden on labour", which it recognises as the second-most serious problem after recruitment.

It is seeking a re-examination of immigration procedures and the granting of work visas, as well as input by the private sector into the formulation of a national strategy.

It says that a regionalisation policy is necessary "because of over-dependence on the capital", but it must recognise areas with a developed infrastructure such as Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Mr Malone said State agencies were "doing their own thing", with no overall guidance on the services sector. The council would like to have an input into the formulation of Enterprise Ireland's policy, he added.

"If we got a minister of state, we would work very closely with him or with her."

Mr Brian Callanan, an IBEC director and a services council member, said a national strategy had to be devised for a growth sector comprising indigenous companies.