Mr. Stephen McNally:

Senator Terry Brennan's point is well made. In the majority of cases a company agrees to a rate when its personnel stay in the hotel regularly and regardless of what event is on, that rate is honoured. I can absolutely commit to this. For example, we have a tour group from America that stays every Tuesday night in Dublin from the first Tuesday in March to the last Tuesday in October and the rate that has been agreed to does not change, regardless of what is on. Those who have an agreed rate for a Saturday night do not face a rate change, regardless of what is on.

I want to clarify what a hotel charges for a small number of rooms. Let us take the Web Summit as an example. I arrived from London on the Tuesday morning of the summit. A colleague from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport took the Aircoach into town and started chatting to a guy who was attending the summit, staying in Dublin 6 and paying €79 for a room which he had booked three months earlier. He had got a good flight and accommodation deal. I can show the room rates at which the vast majority of the hotel rooms were sold. The rates during the summit were slightly inflated but not by the 300% or 400% the Senator mentioned.