Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail)
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I noted that in the presentation made by Restaurants Ireland it was stated its members might have to look outside the country for insurance cover. The cost of insurance has been repeatedly raised as an issue before the committee and it is, with rates, one of the two biggest issues. Has Restaurants Ireland done any work in that regard or on associated problems?

Although it falls slightly outside the remit of Restaurants Ireland, an issue raised previously before the committee which will feed into the number of visitors to towns and cites is that of the cost of hotel rooms. The number of visitors from the United Kingdom fell last year for the first time, which is quite shocking. That may be related to fluctuations in the strength of sterling and so on, but I am curious as to at what point Mr. Cummins or Mr. Edwards think the cost of hotel rooms will harm the city and the tourism industry.

Mr. Parlon made a very good point about the shortage of apartments in cities. The American Chamber of Commerce made a similar point about people not being able to find apartments for their staff to enable them to expand their businesses and the impact it was having. Although Mr. Parlon has mentioned a few issues already, what does he think it will take to move the bigger construction firms on from building offices? As he alluded to, all of the cranes on the skyline are being used to build offices. What will the biggest factor be?

We talked about the planning process. The big developers involved in construction have calculated what they are able to get out of their investment and evidently it all comes down to business. What do the witnesses believe would help to push development in the direction of building apartments and to help those big job providers in Ireland?