Mr. Tim Fenn:

I thank the Deputy for highlighting the importance of hotels as infrastructure. Hotels support foreign direct investment, the domestic economy, and communities throughout every town and county in Ireland. They are an important employer at a local level as well as national level. Hotels are expensive industrial plants to operate. They are always challenged to make extra money, particularly those in seasonal and regional locations. Great progress was made over the years prior to Covid when the seasons were extended, which meant there was more employment for a longer time, and it was not just seasonal employment. Covid changed all that. We have much work to do to rebuild the base we had. I thank Deputy Canney for his comments.