Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media
Rising Cost of Tourist Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed)
Ms Elaina Fitzgerald Kane:
It is fair to say that it is not sustainable now, so when that tourism market opens up, as it does with St. Patrick's Day, a real crisis is looming. There is huge concern and a sense that we could be back here talking about it all the time. That is the reality. How are we going to fix it? We are looking at repurposing accommodation that is not even accommodation at the moment and at modular housing. We have to think bigger than where we are now to get the right balance because, at the end of the day, hotels have contracts as Ms Campbell said earlier. There is a real humanitarian crisis running side-by-side with that. We want to make sure that we are doing the best we can to ensure we are looking after and following up on our commitment to people who have come seeking refuge here, and equally looking after our tourism identity and inevitably trying to position ourselves for that much-needed recovery. Many businesses have come out of Covid and flourished. We have lagged. This is definitely stagnating where we need to get to be sustainable.
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