Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland, CTTC, is the largest private bus and coach operator representative organisation in Ireland. Its membership comprises companies that are predominantly family owned, with a combined fleet of more than 1,500 coaches and carrying more than 3,000 people directly. Coach tourism operators are the backbone of the tourism industry. Without them, we cannot get tourists to various sites or to rural towns and villages.

In 2019, a record 11.2 million overseas visitors came to Ireland and coach tour operators made a significant contribution to the overall success of our tourism product. Responsible for directly attracting 2 million international visitors every year, coach tour operators invested substantial sums of money in marketing Ireland's tourism product abroad. The industry carries coach passengers to every corner of Ireland, giving employment not just to coach tour operators, but also to hotels, retail and hospitality outlets, visitor centres and other small enterprises. In 2018, coach tourism helped to contribute €400 million to the economy.

CTTC members have done exceptionally well to survive and remain in business with their sector fully closed for the past 18 months. The summer of 2021 was far from booming for the sector, with reduced capacity on buses, low numbers of international tourists and a general reluctance to travel on coaches due to Covid-19 fears. As a result, many operators are now questioning both their viability and whether they will survive until the summer of 2022. If they do not survive, the tourism industry will be in serious trouble because it will have no way of transporting tourists around the country.

The Government last provided financial support to the sector as part of the July stimulus package in 2020, with an allocation of €10 million that I helped to secure with the assistance of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath. This was very much appreciated at the time. It was a lifeline the industry desperately needed. However, it took so long for the funding to be released to the industry by Fáilte Ireland - it was only allocated in March, eight months after it was signed off in the July stimulus package - that many operators had exhausted their resources trying to meet fixed costs and repayments on their fleets.

The CTTC urgently needs financial funding and has two key asks in the context of the budget next week. The Government must provide immediate funding to the sector by way of a supplementary budget allocation under the upcoming Finance Bill. In light of the significant loss in international connectivity, which is estimated to be down by approximately 80%, combined with the dent to consumer confidence as a result of Covid, this funding is vital to keep the industry afloat. Given the seasonal nature of the business and the long lead-in time for bookings, which are typically made a year in advance, the summer of 2021 was an extremely bad season, with 84% of businesses not recovering financially. The industry remains severely challenged and there is a real and acute risk that fleet and talent will be lost for good if businesses are not supported and kept afloat. Funding should be made available to cover losses in 2021. That funding should replicate the €10 million provided for coach tourism under the business continuity scheme. The implementation of the scheme should mirror what was done in the context of the previous scheme. This would be a significant help to the industry and assist in keeping many operators in business as we await a partial return to normality in the 2022 tourism season.

Provision must be made for the resumption of the coach tourism business continuity scheme in 2022 on a contingency basis. The CTTC recommends continuing funding for 2022 under the business continuity fund for coach tourism to reflect the real damage done to the sector. The sector is the backbone of the tourism industry. Without these coaches, we cannot get tourists, particularly international tourists, to particular sites and to rural areas. The exclusion of the sector from the CRSS, its being eliminated straight away from the Covid-19 adaptation fund run by Fáilte Ireland and the delay in delivering the €10 million allocated to it under the July stimulus last year have meant that these businesses faced more financial pressures than most.

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