Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Writing in the Irish Mail on Sunday, John Drennan reported that only a small percentage of hotel beds currently being utilised by refugees and asylum seekers will revert to the tourism market this year. In fact, data provided to the Irish Mail on Sunday by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, revealed that slightly more than 2,500 hotel beds will be put back into the tourism market in the five months from January until the end of this month. A further 483 rooms will be made available for tourism between now and the end of June due to four hotels ending their contracts. However, as the paper went on to note, the number of refugees and asylum seekers being housed in hotels and B&Bs still exceeds 37,500. This figure is likely to remain constant for the rest of the year, leading to a potential loss of €1 billion in revenue for non-accommodation tourism businesses, many of which are small businesses, as the Taoiseach will be aware. I am aware that the Fáilte Ireland analysis that came up with this figure was presented to the Taoiseach last week. Fáilte Ireland highlighted the very concerns I am highlighting today when it came before the joint committee. The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation also recently stated that Ireland is an outlier in Europe in the depth of its reliance on tourism beds for refugees. This is a clear indication that, in responding to an international crisis, we have created a serious national crisis for small tourism businesses, especially those in rural Ireland that are traditionally reliant on downstream revenue created by a vibrant tourism sector.

I also point out that I am not the only one raising these concerns. Senior Fine Gael sources who spoke to The Irish Mail on Sunday, which is not The Ditch, also expressed their alarm. One is reported as saying:

It's creating real unease in rural Ireland - rural Ireland is ready to explode. We are being turned into economic ghettos where tourism is forced out of rural Ireland. Dublin's hotels may be booming, but ours are full of refugees wandering around main streets without a penny to spend.

Unless the Taoiseach wants to characterise these senior Fine Gael sources as part of some far-right conspiracy, he will have to deal with the seriousness of this situation. I want to know exactly what is being done to rescue our rural tourism from the effects of the Government's over-reliance on hotels. I want to know what the Government is doing to take this matter seriously and I do not want to hear the Taoiseach dismissing it because that is not fair to the small businesses in rural Ireland that are suffering because of the action or inaction of the Government. I want to hear a credible pathway outlined in terms of the mitigation measures that Government Departments can take to reduce the potential loss of €1 billion in revenue from the rural economy and I welcome the Taoiseach's thoughts and proposals on this matter.

See this speech in context