Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Central Dublin is lacking a big hotel with enough beds to meet demand and this matter has been raised before in the context of the conference centre, which, hopefully, will be ready in the next couple of years.

My daughter lives in London and she recently told me that her boyfriend's firm brought 300 young lawyers to Dublin for a bonding exercise, which is something big firms do nowadays. The only location they could get in all of Dublin was Citywest. They were taken there by bus from the airport, with lots of money in their pockets, but they never left Citywest while they were here. They never got to see Dublin. I congratulate Citywest on capturing the available market, but it seems it is the only place large visiting groups can go in Dublin. The Burlington Hotel and Jury's Hotel were huge losses. Has there been any liaison with the industry on responding to the lack of a large, central hotel in Dublin? There is huge potential in this area of the business but we are missing a big opportunity if large visiting groups must stay in a location where nothing else is accessible.

See this speech in context