Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ms Hanlon absolutely has. The impact of Covid-19 on the finances of coach tour operators has been disastrous. Such operators traditionally plan their finances on the basis that they need to cover their operating costs throughout the winter period until the tourist season commences the following March. The timing of the outbreak of Covid-19 has meant that many of those operators have no reserves left to enable them to survive the crisis until the revenue, we hope, starts to flow again in the 2021 tourist season. What financial support mechanism should be put in place, considering that the turnover for the coach tourism and private hire industry is €250 million per year and that fixed costs amount to 17% of this amount? The latter highlights a need for a yearly subsidy requirement of €42.5 million. What other measures can be put in place to keep this vital part of our economy in operation?