Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This has been one of the real successes of the Covid pandemic. It has been 18 months of misery on the health front, for those in employment and those who are trying to shore up a business and keep it surviving at this time. This has been one of the successes in stabilising the economy and it is very much appreciated by those in business. I am glad 6,000 people in Clare are benefiting from it and that the Minister recently announced an extension of the EWSS for a further two months. I am also glad the Covid stability fund is there for businesses such as nightclubs that will have to remain closed until 9 January.

However, there are anomalies in these supports. Some 11,000 employees in the hotel sector are facing a degree of uncertainty at the moment because new criteria for the EWSS were introduced in budget 2022. The anomaly arises in the case of seasonal hotels like those in the west. A seaside hotel could be closed at this time but may have every intention of opening in the early spring. The other anomaly relates to largish hotels that might be doing pretty good trade in the lead-up to Christmas. They will have pulled out of the EWSS because of that trade but may not expect to be at those trading levels in January 2022. Due to that break in trading, they will be precluded from the EWSS for the first four months of 2022. That leads to a lot of uncertainty for them. I already mentioned the 11,000 jobs. Most of these are family-owned hotels or rural hotels in the west, but that model is also replicated in other parts of the country. They need an added degree of certainty. There has been a 60% collapse in bookings leading into Christmas. They are going to need a little more certainty as we face into the new year.

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