Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There can be no doubt that tourism is one of the sectors that has been most adversely impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. On 5 March, the Minister for Health made a statement on the floor of this House recognising that fact. At that time, the Minister noted that the Government was mindful that any sustained period of significant flight restrictions would lead to impacts on tourism and business in Ireland. That has come to pass.

I acknowledge the fact that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, and the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, regularly convene a meeting of the Covid-19 tourism monitoring group to assess the disruption to the sector. The group has been in contact with public transport operators, the National Transport Authority and other transport operators.

Fáilte Ireland is creating a set of operational guidelines to help businesses when they reopen at the appropriate time. As I understand it, these guidelines will be published in the coming weeks to provide advice on various systems that can be adopted and will help instil public confidence and reboot business while adhering to Government and public health directives. In terms of the grants that are being rolled out to help businesses, small businesses are telling me that they will be landed into more debt and more supports are needed. I understand that this is a difficult time and that decisions need to be made but it will be more productive in the long term if we give small businesses more supports rather than grants that will sink them deeper into debt. That will also help the economy in rural regions.

Fáilte Ireland has known since at least early March that the tourism sector was going to be badly hit.

We now have a statement issued in the past few days telling us that it will be weeks before it rolls out advice to local tourist operators. It must have been possible to have a strategy developed at greater speed than that. I am aware there is a huge frustration in regard to the delay.

We have also seen the recent report from EY Ireland which acknowledges that the rural economy will be disproportionately impacted because it is dominated by two sectors - agrifood and tourism. The EY report goes on to note that the development of Irish tourism is at the heart of Project Ireland 2040 aspirations to build a more sustainable and resilient economic model, less dependent on Dublin, with a higher focus on indigenous rather than multinational businesses. All of that is now at imminent risk of collapse thanks to the devastation that is being experienced in rural communities.

I welcome the fact that the following concerns have been raised by the Irish Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association of Ireland. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has also liaised with ferry companies in seeking to ensure that, insofar as possible, HGV drivers are not at this time required to share cabins with other drivers and that, where that is not possible, HGV drivers are offered reclining seats. That is a sensible and pragmatic approach but what we need is more collaboration from the stakeholders since they are the experts. I acknowledge that the Minister of State mentioned that there were some stakeholders represented on the committee but more are needed. Some sectors believe they are not properly represented.

In terms of the response of the insurance sector, and particularly the airline sector with respect to refunds, I think the Minister of State will accept that the response has been far from ideal. As he will be aware, under EU regulation 261/2014, airlines must reimburse passengers whose flights are cancelled with the choice of a refund or a re-routing within seven days. I note that Ireland co-signed a letter with 13 other EU members calling on the European Commission to adapt the rules on how passengers can be refunded. That is welcome. The Minister of State might be able to tell us if there has been much resistance to that from the airlines and the European Commission. We have to remember that we are talking about small sums of money in respect of the airlines. Most families will have saved for some time to purchase these tickets. The situation is unfair. They need to receive prompt reimbursement and not just vouchers or the offer of rescheduling flights, which I have seen from some airlines.

Local tourism is what sustains many villages and towns in Ireland, from bed and breakfast accommodation to retail and other services. I hope the VAT rate on the hospitality sector and hairdressers will be reduced to 0%. I believe that approach is needed. We need to take radical action. I stated in the Chamber two years ago that the VAT rate should not have been increased because rural towns and villages did not feel the recovery in the same way as the cities. It was wrong to begin with but we now have a chance to undo that somewhat and support them by reducing the VAT rate for hairdressers and the hospitality sector.

It will take a whole-of-Government approach to deal comprehensively with the particular challenge faced. I can only hope that sufficient measures will be rolled out to respond accordingly and, as I have stated previously, that there will be increased collaboration with the experts from the different sectors.

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