Mr. Eoghan O'Mara Walsh:

Ms Andrews might speak to car hire but on a general point, the Deputy and other members mentioned some excessive prices, particularly in Dublin on concert nights or whatever. These are damaging to the broad tourism industry but are not reflective of the wider industry. It is important to state that. The tourism industry knows it is critical for value to be retained and maintained. In 2006, at the height of the Celtic tiger, Irish tourism became expensive and lost its value perception. After the great financial crash, global travel and tourism suffered, with Irish tourism taking much longer to recover because we had lost value. We understand the importance of value and it is frustrating for us to hear about some of the prices mentioned by the Deputy. For those late, last-minute availability rooms, on average the value of a room in Dublin and nationally is still value for money compared with international peers. It is something we must guard very jealously and carefully.

I will pass over to Ms Andrews because I am eating into the time but the 9% VAT rate is national and covers all tourism services. Punishing the industry on a national level for poor behaviour by a handful of hoteliers in Dublin would be very damaging to the recovery of Irish tourism as a whole.