Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy will know I met NAMA and senior officials in my Department and from Fáilte Ireland to discuss the issue of hotels generally. They have assured me that they are not in the business of propping up hotels, but at the same time they have to take an economic valuation to ensure there is not a fire sale because that would not be in the best interests of the industry. They are very open to working with the national policy guidelines which I believe are very helpful. There is speculation about the numbers of hotels held by banks and NAMA. NAMA currently has some 30 hotels based in Ireland and it anticipates that by the end of its dealings it will have 60 or 65 hotels. It is not the huge numbers people thought. It is considering a geographic spread to determine its current position.

What we need, because we have set out a target to increase the number of tourists visiting Ireland to 8 million people over the next four to five years, is to have a range of quality hotels available so that there are three to five star hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfasts. We also we need to ensure that we do not get rid of hotels and then find that we do not have sufficient capacity. I have no doubt that the market will determine that.

See this speech in context