Ms Ruth Andrews:

I want to support the conversation in the room in terms of the international tourism piece. I have 37 members who have delivered almost 700,000 holiday visitors to this country over the last number of years. Our issue is primarily around the shortfall of accommodation capacity, particularly in rural Ireland and, as Mr. Gibbons pointed out, when demand remains at a very strong level, we are simply unable to satisfy that. That affects inbound tour operators as much as it does the visitor attractions that we support and the wide range of activity providers, restaurants and entertainment venues to which we supply significant business across all of the regions.

We are now in a position whereby we are unable to do that at a level that can satisfy the demand from our overseas markets. We are already under pressure to convert business and meet demand for the peak season months. This is simply down to the fact we cannot get accommodation. There is no doubt that the capacity constraints we currently have are putting upward pressure on pricing. We all are aware that pricing has increased across the tourism industry, not just in Ireland but throughout the Continent as well. Ireland is not necessarily any more expensive than some of our key competitors. Where issues start to arise is when we have the additional complexity of not having the 32% capacity in the hotel space. That puts upward pressure on pricing at certain times of the year.

It is also important to recognise that pricing is dynamic. The price of a hotel room, rental car or a visit to an attraction varies from season to season. It can even vary depending on the time of the week. That has always been the case and it is not unique to Ireland. It is just a fact of how we do our pricing within tourism generally. We must be cognisant of that when we talk about pricing and price increases. There is no doubt that as long as we have capacity constraints, supply and demand absolutely will impact on price.

On the Deputy's point about cross-Border and all-Ireland tourism, ITOA members have been doing business for decades that involved selling the island of Ireland. In the year of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, it is terrific to see how that business has grown on an all-island basis. There can be confusion about what is needed for crossing the Border and there are impacts and a fallout from Brexit. European visitors must now have a full passport to enter the UK. Many of them travel on the Continent without needing a full passport. That certainly is an impact of what has happened as a consequence of Brexit.

From our perspective, we are there to ensure the messaging is clear. We work closely with Tourism Ireland across all the primary markets to ensure people are clear about that. There are concerns about the electronic travel requirement the UK Government is introducing. It will not be introduced until 2024 but it will cause some degree of confusion, particularly for tourists who arrive in the Republic of Ireland before travelling to the North. In fact, 70% of visitors to Northern Ireland arrive first into the Republic. We will have to make sure there is clear messaging around that. We hope some consideration may be given to an exemption for tourists who arrive on that basis. I assure the Deputy we will do everything we can, working with Tourism Ireland, Tourism NI, Fáilte Ireland and all our colleagues, to make sure we communicate a clear message about all-Ireland tourism and encourage people to come to both sides of the Border.