Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)

I have no doubt but that the Minister and all present here are taking note of the tone of the conversations today. In relation to enterprise, we cannot take away that we are almost at zero unemployment, which is a wonderful place to be. The important thing is we keep our foot down, especially in relation to new businesses. It also brings up the tone that is coming through here today is that we are nowhere near the potential in tourism. Nearly every question directed at the Minister was related to tourism. All I can do is try to bring in my experience, such as what a hotel does for a town and what happens to a town when there is no hotel. There are 32,000 rooms under planning. My concern and I have spoken to the Minister privately on this before is about how many of those will come to fruition. We need to work on that.

If you pick a small town such as, for example, Courtown, Wexford, they have planning for a hotel. There will 100 jobs for 365 days of the year. It will transform the town. The social fabric of the town will completely change once that hotel opens. There are so many threads going into a hotel opening. Young people going in to work in a hotel is one of the greatest experiences any child will have. I have seen it. I spoke to the Irish Hotels Federation about it last week. I know a young girl who went in there who had not been going to school. She came out after a summer season in a hotel transformed. We simply cannot put a price on that. If we reverse it, like my colleagues said, if a hotel has closed down or is turned into an IPAS centre, there is an effect of that on the social fabric of the town. There is everything from a christening to a burial and celebrating the life of somebody in a hotel. If that is not there, it is a huge gap. It is just to encourage those 32,000 rooms to make sure they come to fruition. That cannot be emphasised enough.