Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

A restructuring has occurred due to very high property prices and this has affected not only hotels but service stations and such sites. All over the country hotels are becoming apartment blocks and residential sites but, given changes in the property market, I think this will be short-lived and will slow substantially. The conference centre will meet one of the requirements the Deputy mentioned and 85 or 86 hotels have opened in Ireland in the past two years. There are now almost 1,000 hotels and most of these have invested substantially in convention centres. There is significant capacity for conference facilities — I have not heard of a shortage of such facilities as described by the Deputy. Perhaps visitors stay in Citywest for other reasons.

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