Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The hotel industry was accused of gouging. However, the Smith Travel Research, STR, report, which provides benchmarking and marketplace insight in a global hospitality industry monitor, stated that the average price of a Dublin hotel room during the high season was €187 and much lower throughout the country. It was definitely much lower in Limerick.

For a Fianna Fáil Minister to say publicly that the hospitality industry was guilty of gouging hurt the entire sector. I am glad to say the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, corrected the record yesterday while speaking on the radio and said this was not a true reflection of what was happening around the country. It was definitely not happening in Limerick. For a Fianna Fáil Minister of State from Limerick to say the hotel industry was gouging meant he had not done his homework and he had just singled out the entire hotel industry.

One question the Minister of State might answer concerns the fact that more than 15% of our hotels, or well over that, have now gone in the context of the war in Ukraine. What are we going to do with visitors who will be coming in next year? What is going to happen to the businesses depending on these hotels having visitors coming in? Nearly 30% of our hotels are now full with people, and the Government wishes to take in more. The Government is going to destroy our industry and destroy Ireland.

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