Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are others offering to speak, but I have other questions and we have limited time. What Mr. McGann just said covers it all. There is a lack of information. He said it was criminal not to know. Absolutely, and the audacity of the CRU in the month of March 2021, one year into Covid-19 and closure, to say that there is a lack of interest and lack of take-up is morally wrong a million times over. When one thinks that cumulatively 227,000 business customers, not all of them, could potentially have availed of this in terms of alleviating cost burdens, that is wrong. It is criminal. This committee must immediately ask for the reactivation of that scheme and for a nationwide campaign to ensure hard-pressed businesses avail of a maximum discount in utilities.

I will bundle the last few questions I wish to put. Can Ms Fitzgerald Kane tell us, briefly, if there is any pathway for weddings to resume? Not every hotel is blessed to be on the Wild Atlantic Way or in the centre of Dublin city. Many small town hotels rely on weddings every Saturday afternoon when 200 people arrive for receptions. Accommodation is booked and there are meals. The supply chain from the local butcher and local farmer is huge. Everything depends on it. We are a shade below peak Covid. It is hard to conceive how this may happen over the coming weeks, but I am hoping the people in the industry might outline how the Irish Hotels Federation see a pathway to that.

I have a final question for Mr. McGann. I believe the pub model that will be most impacted post Covid is the rural leased pub. I will explain what I mean. If there is a family pub that has been passed down through the generations, it does not have a mortgage. It has overheads but the owner will eventually be able to turn a key, open up and somehow cobble together and get going again as a business. If one is fortunate enough to be in a town or a city centre, there will be footfall owing to the location of the pub. However, there are many pubs, and I can think of many in County Clare, in which somebody, three or four years ago, decided to take a different pathway in life. These people leased the pub, be it at the top of the village or at the crossroads a mile from town. They leased the pub and do not own it. They are struggling to pay rent at this time. I believe that is the pub that will go under. Ultimately, that is the rural licence that will be sold, never to be seen back again.

Perhaps Ms Fitzgerald Kane and Mr. McGann would respond to those two questions.