Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

What is the Government's attitude to the proposed sale of the Great Southern Hotels? What is Government policy on the matter? The Taoiseach is very familiar with the contribution made down the years by the Great Southern Hotels and is aware of the very high quality service provided there. He appreciates that they have been a key piece of the tourism infrastructure of the country for very many years and will agree with me that they have tended to be passed from Billy to Jack in recent years. For example, the contribution the hotels made to the training of high skilled staff was, at one stage, more than the contribution made by the rest of the entire hotel sector.

I was contacted this morning by people in Killarney, not all of whom were of my particular persuasion, as they put it to me, to remind me of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism's pledge before the election that the hotels would not be sold. I was horrified to hear that, on local radio this morning, he seemed to resile from that position.

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