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

We have heard a stark presentation for everybody here today. It is great to have the Department here, which is working with might and main to try to address this. I can say definitively, without the agreement of my colleagues, that we will look to have the witnesses in early in the new year to see where we are and what the plan may be. I am very concerned, from what I am hearing today, about what will happen in March. I am concerned about how the tourism industry can even plan for beyond that while we develop a plan. There is a deadline in March where those beds will go back into tourism. We need them to be back in use for tourism as part of the wider tourism product. How do we address that while simultaneously addressing the humanitarian crisis? It is a huge ask and not easily solved. We need to be active on this issue as a committee.

I thank everyone sincerely for their comprehensive presentations today. Stark and worrying concerns have been raised. As a committee, my colleagues and I will have no difficulty in continuing to address this early in the new year.