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

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. I understand and we all know there is a war, but the fact of the matter is that Ireland is an outlier in Europe in terms of the reliance on hotel, bed and breakfast and guesthouse beds. We are different. Why are we so different? Why have other countries adopted a more sensible approach and protected their local economies more than we have? That is the fact of the matter. I am by no means setting out this as a division in terms of being a rural-urban issue, but I am a rural Deputy and I see my constituency suffering day in, day out. I see Bord na Móna jobs being lost. Like every other place in Ireland, Offaly and Laois are trying to build up their tourism, and then we see beds not available. When you get down to the facts, every euro spent on accommodation by every tourist or visitor means another €2.50 into that local economy. The paper approved by Fáilte Ireland argued that mitigation measures need to be put in place for businesses that depend on tourism, such as bike hire, boating and cafés. We will see a loss of €1.1 billion in our local economy. That is serious, and that is not being divisive. I am laying out the facts in black and white.

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