Mr. Denis Sheridan:

One stumbling block for companies coming to Ireland for these purposes, which has been referred to widely through the news and so on, is hotel prices. If people are being quoted €400 per night for a room, they will look at bringing the meetings to cheaper locations elsewhere. That is one problem we face. They will look outside Dublin, so that may be a benefit. I know all of Europe has been affected by the increase in hotel and fuel prices. Before this, multinationals that used Ireland as their base were not inclined to use Dublin because of the prices. I know of instances where we ended up in places like Hungary for the meetings because of the prices in Ireland. That is a major factor. If we can promote the rural areas which have plants and so on, companies are willing to use them. We need to promote local businesses in those areas.