Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I refer to an issue raised in the Seanad yesterday regarding the hotels that opened in the latter half of 2019 but prior to 1 November. Hotels that opened on or after 1 November 2019 are allowed to use their pre-pandemic projections for 2021 and 2022 as the base for comparison with their actual turnover in 2021 and 2022 in establishing whether their turnover achieved the 30% reduction. Due to an anomaly within the rules, however, hotels that opened in September and October 2019 are forced to use the minuscule turnover they achieved immediately after opening in 2019 as the base for comparison with their 2021 and 2022 turnover. Obviously there is not a 30% reduction in that. These hotels have been cut off since last September and are precluded again by the changes we are considering here. I ask the Minister to look at this specific anomaly. I think we are talking about five or six hotels around the country in total. It has a devastating impact on the employment levels in those hotels, particularly from 1 January next.

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