Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As many Deputies have said, tourism and food production are the lifeblood of many rural and regional economies in terms of jobs and generating income. I support the call of many Deputies here today for the establishment of a task force to deal with the myriad issues that will have to be managed as we begin to reopen our tourism industry. As a prelude to that, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport needs to meet all of the main players, from the Irish Hotels Federation to the aviation sector, the tour operators and everybody in between and to use that as a template for the task force that is to be established. It is urgent that tourism businesses get clarity around what is going to happen.

As I said, tourism is crucial in rural areas, including in my constituency, and it provides over 30,000 jobs in the north west, in Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Donegal. It is important to listen to what that industry is saying. One of the things it is saying is that while the announcements last weekend were welcome, they do not go far enough. I heard the Minister of State say there are a lot of moving parts, which there are. However, to take the issue of rates as an example, the rebate is for three months yet no tourism business can open before the end of June and that is not even part of the Government's own roadmap. Therefore, these businesses, looking at the scrapping of rates for three months, see that it is no good to them. It needs to be a minimum of six months and, ideally, 12 months, with a guarantee that when they are back in business, they will be paying some kind of pro ratarate, depending on the trade they are doing.

There is also a big issue around commercial rents. There has to be burden sharing between tourism businesses, the Government and landlords, and this applies to businesses across the board. This kind of triumvirate needs to set in place some kind of structure whereby businesses can remain on life support until the opportunity presents for them to reopen.

Other Deputies have asked for a 0% VAT rate and I add my voice to that. I am pleased the Minister of State is considering it and I hope it will be part of the programme for Government.

In response to Deputy Shanahan, the Minister of State said that money has to be repaid and he also said that tourism is the only show in town for many places. It is true that the money has to be repaid. However, I honestly believe that a portion of the Covid-19 debt has to be ring-fenced at European level, whether through corona bonds or otherwise, and put to one side because that is the only way the European economy can be kick-started. If we do not pump-prime tourism projects, there will be no show in many different towns.

I mentioned earlier that tourism needs certainty. These are uncertain times but hoteliers are asking me whether they can book weddings for August and September, what they should do about numbers, does it depend on the floor space they have, do they need two metres between each of the tables, can there be entertainment afterwards and how they manage check-in. Those are all practical details and while we are in uncertain times, we can give more certainty to these businesses about them. I ask the Minister of State to consider that. When these businesses reopen, they will need grant aid because they already have a mounting wall of debt and they cannot afford to examine their businesses to see what needs to be done around social distancing.

I know of businesses which, regrettably, have decided to close their doors. Certain companies, in this case telephone companies and energy companies, are insisting on extortionate penalty clauses of over €400 per company to terminate contracts. While I will not name the companies today, I ask the Minister of State if there is any way his Department or the Government can use their influence to stop these companies basically terrorising businesses which are no longer able to trade.

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