Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I am concerned, as the Minister is aware, by the blunt recent announcement that the Torc Great Southern Hotel in Killarney would not reopen and was on the market to be sold by public tender without consultation with staff. There are persistent rumours in Kerry regarding the hotel at Parknasilla and surveyors have visited there. Will the Minister scotch these rumours because it is widely believed that the Parknasilla hotel is unofficially on the market? I understand there is concern in Galway regarding the Corrib hotel and that it is the intention of the hotel group to reduce bit by bit. I believe that the board of the hotel in Derry, if not the Aer Rianta board, is not happy with its involvement there.

There was a recent sale of 4.6 acres of land attaching to the Torc Great Southern Hotel in Killarney. The railway company was not consulted despite its difficulties in Killarney. The Minister will be well aware of the assurances given in the other House by the then Minister for Public Enterprise, Senator O'Rourke, on 18 May 1999, that there would be no change without the fullest consultation, in particular with the staff of the hotels, and with the overriding objective of maintaining and maximising employment. That commitment has been reneged on.

The Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, whose constituency is Kerry South, assured staff through the local media that they would be accommodated in the Torc Great Southern Hotel in Killarney. From my consultation with staff, they have no understanding of that and do not believe it. They had a meeting yesterday or today and will ballot with regard to possible strike action.

The hotel group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aer Rianta and its board holds the view that the hotel group is not central to its operations, is non-core activity, that it should exit the hotel sector and that the proceeds of the sell-off should be directed towards the airports. A report by Warburg Dillon Read and AIB Capital Markets agreed with the board's view in that regard. This raises the most fundamental question with regard to the future of the hotels. Should they ever have been placed with Aer Rianta? Does the Government intend that the hotel group will continue with Aer Rianta or will it reallocate the hotels within the semi-State sector to a more convivial home? Is it the intention to see them reduced by individual sell-offs, as is believed in parts of the country?

There is a clear public need for a new and expanded railway station in Killarney. The station is adjacent to both hotels and is the only station in the country into which trains must reverse, on their way from Tralee to Dublin. There are six or seven acres adjoining the Torc Great Southern Hotel, the end of which would make an ideal site for a train station. This need not interfere with the sale of the hotels and there is no need to sell the hotels for that. The urban council in Killarney is having difficulty obtaining land for housing and that should be kept in mind if some land is surplus to requirements. I do not accept that the hotel is surplus to requirements but there are six or seven acres with the hotel which at the stroke of a pen were lost to the railway company.