Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to tell Mr. Fenn how to sell his message, but presenting it as a capacity issue does the federation a disservice. We had our party conference, as all parties do, this weekend. I spoke to an individual who has travelled every time there was a party conference. On the previous occasion, he travelled with his wife, stayed two nights and was charged €350. On this occasion, he was asked for €750. Hoteliers would do themselves more justice if they owned up to the fact that they are pricing rooms way out of the league of most people. They might say there is a demand and that they can sell the rooms but they are making it very uncompetitive for a lot of other people in terms of the rates being charged. We will probably not persuade the federation today to approach this differently but there has been a transformation in the rates being charged. Trying to explain it away as a capacity problem that the market will rectify does not do it for me. I am sorry, lads.