Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Having had the privilege of listening to everything today, we are facing a very difficult time, more or less a crisis, within the tourism sector and particularly in the provision of hotels and beds within the hotel sector. I feel what I am hearing today is that come next March, we are going to see an avalanche in the humanitarian crisis and where these people can go but, equally, if we do not address that in a very robust way, we will have no tourism and will set ourselves back about ten years. As a committee, we just decided today on our schedule for the new year but we are going to have to scrap that after what we have heard and have the witnesses back in consistently up to March until we get to grips with this particular issue and get on top of it.

I am going to use my own anecdotal experience because we all do and it helps us relate to the work we have to do as a committee. Mr. Kelly knows I have a real concern about where we are going with the hotel sector and those hotels that have long contracts and may never ever come back into the hotel or tourism sector. I will use the Bailie Hotel as an example. Speaking to Mr. Fenn's point earlier on, the Bailie Hotel is probably a three-star hotel - I am not quite sure what it is - but it did far more than just the tourism piece in the sense that it provided the social fabric of the community. It was the place where everybody went to for their first communions, confirmations, funerals, and meetings. They were all held in the Bailie Hotel and it has been sold. It has been a family-run business for the past 20 years and has provided excellent, top-class service to the community but also as a tourism amenity for east Cavan. My fear is that while that premises and business is being sold, neither those who are selling, myself or anybody else, knows what the future holds for that business. I am using Bailieborough as an example and the Bailie Hotel is an anchor business. There are two main anchor businesses on our main street that everybody else depends on for their survival. If that one business is taken out, 50% of the anchor business is gone from a main street.

I will go to Mr. Kelly now. Is he seeing this as a common trend throughout the country?