Mr. Eoghan O'Mara Walsh:

I will not labour the point. Obviously Ms Campbell and Mr. Fenn speak on behalf of the Irish Hotels Federation. The Irish Tourism Industry Federation is the wider industry. The tourism industry is and always has been a great employer. It always will be. It is people-oriented and labour intensive. It is the biggest regional employer we have.

I also wish to commend Fáilte Ireland on its initiatives in that regard. It is particularly important that we focus on it because there is a great variety of careers within tourism. Often we just need to get that message across and make sure the perception of tourism is kept high.

Going back to the stay and spend scheme, I agree with Mr. Kelly. I do not think it is the correct lever at the moment. It was brought in during Covid-19 when there were no international visitors and we wanted to stimulate the domestic market. It did not work because it was cumbersome and it was administered through the Revenue Commissioners. If the Government or policymakers were to do something at the moment it should be such things as extending the VAT rate or giving a more generous business energy support scheme and extending that beyond February and, crucially, a balanced plan as to how refugees and asylum seekers are to be accommodated so that we can make sure that the tourism accommodation stock is available for the tourism economy. If those levers could be pulled it would be much more effective and beneficial for the industry in the year ahead.