Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our guests. I appreciate their taking time out to be with us at what is a busy time of the year for the industry.

In considering this issue, which is a source of immense frustration to many people, it is important we do not tar everyone with the same brush. That is one tendency when we have discussions about this. The entire industry gets painted with the one brush and differentiations are not made between various categories of accommodation provider. Certainly, geographical differentiations are made. I am a bit of an anorak. I spend a lot of time on booking.com, Trivago and so on just out of interest and to look at the prices, not because I am actually going places. I have a very exciting life. It is very clear to see that there is one location in this country where prices are just out of this world, and that is Dublin. There is great value to be got in other parts of Ireland. I should maybe be pointing out the good news stories more where there is excellent value to be got. Looking this week in my constituency, specifically Killarney, some really good four-star hotels have rooms for less than €150, including bed and breakfast. It is hard to imagine how people can sell at those prices, but those are the prices that are available. There will always be the lad who gets on to Joe Duffy quoting €6,000 for a week in a five-star hotel in Killarney. That sort of thing does nobody any service. It just distorts the argument. Whereas booking sites and engines are really useful for the industry, they are also a bit of a double-edged sword because they can throw up massive anomalies and ridiculous prices every so often. Nonetheless, Dublin prices are now consistently extremely high. They are really damaging to our reputation internationally. A differentiation has to be made between some of the independently owned hotels and the corporate hotels. That is the elephant in the room. There are people who are not thinking about next season or the following season and who are ruthlessly selling at enormous prices. We hear about them but do not hear about the independents and smaller groups that are doing their best and keeping prices at very reasonable limits. They do not make the headlines, and that needs to be factored into the discussion. We need to be fair when we talk about this.

The industry and all of us, as public representatives, should at this stage start naming and shaming those who are abusing the situation. I think it is the only way to go at this stage because everyone being tarred with the one brush is not helping anyone and is letting those who are abusing the situation get away. It is time now, therefore, to identify individually the abusers of the situation and to make those names public. That is the only way we will deal this. We can have all the discussions we like here and we can talk until the cows come home, but until we actually start going out there and identifying the people who are abusing the situation, we will be going around in circles.

I am very keen that we help address some of the costs, at least. In particular, energy prices, I imagine, are a huge challenge for the sector at the moment. I ask the IHF and ITIC representatives here if they feel there is anything in particular the Government could do about costs - energy, I am sure, is a huge one, but there are other costs - that is not being done?

Have the witnesses seen the benefits of insurance reforms start to accrue in respect of the premiums charged? Are premiums still increasing or has the rate of increase at least slowed?

A separate matter is the cost of rental cars. Is that impacting rural areas? It is another astronomical cost and is now getting very much close to name-and-shame territory. I think that that is the only corrective action we can take, apart from deregulating the industry to make way for an Airbnb for car rentals. Let us see how the Hertzs and the GoCars of this world and everyone else who is jumping on the bandwagon deal with that. Is that issue impacting rural hotels and accommodation providers?