Ms Ruth Andrews:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and I just want to reiterate Mr. O'Mara Walsh's response on the ability to recover. Let us not forget the tourism industry is still in recovery after two torrid years of the pandemic. A lot of businesses, particularly downstream businesses and businesses like my own, which are inbound tourism operators who could not operate at all for two years, are just coming out of the worst crisis and trying to rebuild. They have terrific opportunities to do so and the demand is there. Ireland is still a destination that has significant pulling power and there is huge interest. The work was maintained over the Covid-19 period in marketing the country and keeping that light on and making sure our partners, through the global travel trade system, were ready to go, which they were. They have come back in numbers. Meitheal happened last week and there was a terrific turnout from overseas buyers. The ultimate frustration is the fact that we cannot recover if 32% of our accommodation is not available to tourism. As long as that is the situation, we cannot recover to 2019 levels. It is just as simple as that and, therefore, we need to impress on everybody that there needs to be a solution. Tourism has its part to play in supporting the Government in the Ukranian refugee crisis and the need for accommodation. We all understand that the ultimate root of all of this is the housing crisis but tourism is bearing the greatest brunt in facilitating yet another crisis. Unless we can address this situation with a meaningful plan, tourism and many of the businesses within the industry simply will not be able to recover at the pace that they could have. We are here to recognise that the Government got us through the worst of times. We now want to return that investment to Government. We want to be able to stand on our own two feet. My members certainly do. The demand form the overseas market is there, the demand from the domestic market is thankfully there, but the biggest impediment we have, irrespective of price, is actually the availability of accommodation.