Former Minister Quinton Edness branded ten redundancies from the Fairmont Hamilton Princess “extremely disturbing”, adding: “If Government was working with Fairmont, they need not be laid off — this has been done before in Bermuda.”

The one-time United Bermuda Party statesman was reacting to news of Friday’s layoffs — telling The Royal Gazette that more had to be done to revive the hospitality sector.

“I should like to urge the Government to do more to immediately help the more than 2,000 people who are unemployed, and to do more for the up to 3,000 young people that come onto the market looking for jobs each year.

“I believe part of the answer is to concentrate efforts on the largest job supplier — the hotels, the guest houses and restaurants,” he said.

“I appreciate that Government is doing a lot to create more jobs in the longer term, like starting up the Tourism Authority, efforts to stimulate more jobs in international business, the discussions on gaming for Bermuda and the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission discussion, and the custodial technician certification.

“But these are all long-term initiatives. Obviously some of the short-term would be cleaning programmes.

“This will enable Government to reduce the number of work permits in that particular area, and there are lots of them.”

Mr Edness said most people were pleased by news of projects like the refurbishment of the St George’s Golf Course.

“But they really do not help the immediate problem of unemployed people who are not able to feed their families,” he said. “Reports of children going to school hungry are very disturbing.

“We need to do things that can immediately help families, like starting up a register of all those are unemployed and determining which households have the most chronic need.

“We need to work with the private sector to create schemes to keep people employed. We need Government to develop projects to employ people — are there any Government projects that can be brought forward and started up?

“This in particular bearing in mind that the hospital construction ends in September. We need to have jobs for those people to go to.”

Without a concerted effort, he warned, the Island faced “a huge problem on our hands in the next two or three years”.

“Hotels have for a very long time been the major job provider in Bermuda.

“So I should like to see more done in that area to help the hotels and guest houses to keep people employed.”

Mr Edness said Government should throw more effort into “special packages with the hotels, guest houses and airline, to encourage people to come to Bermuda” — and said Government should do more to support hotel projects financially.

“I am aware that Government is carrying enormous debt and has no cash.

“We are still a country with means and credibility, which should be utilised during a period like this to help people feed their families and look after their children.”

He added: “I’m sure the rest of Bermuda would like to help Government. All we are asking is that they should try.

“We would like to see more effort placed immediately on trying to help the unemployed and those likely to be unemployed through the winter.

“It’s not enough for Government to say, ‘See what we are doing with the Tourism Authority’ — that’s long-term. People need help right now, and it’s up to the Government to try and help them.”