Mary Henry (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am alarmed that we appear to take a complacent attitude to this debate. I am anxious because mention has not yet been made of the problem of Irish people being unable to take holidays in this country because it is too expensive. More money is spent by Irish tourists abroad than is spent by foreign tourists here. A friend of mine was given a holiday by her three daughters. I asked her where she planned to go, knowing that she likes to holiday in Ireland. She replied that, as her daughters would not be up to the cost of a holiday here, she would go to Lanzarote. Perhaps Senator Ryan's restaurateur friend was better off trying to live in the Canaries for the winter because it was probably much cheaper.

We totally lose the perspective that Irish people might like to holiday in Ireland. However, it is much cheaper to go abroad. I was glad Senator Feighan, Senator Daly and others stressed the positive side to holidays in Ireland. There have been improvements in restaurants, in particular. I salute Myrtle Allen who has been recognised nationally and internationally for doing so much to promote food in this country. We have come a long way. However, prices are very high and I do not believe the rather complacent speech by the Minister of State is enough to describe what is happening.

I went to Copenhagen recently and there were some Finnish people on the aeroplane. I asked them if they enjoyed their holiday. They said they did and asked me if I had been to Finland. I said I had and they responded by saying that they hoped I did not find it as expensive as they found Ireland. We have a big problem because with the euro, it is much easier to compare prices. With the US dollar being in dire straits, the Americans are finding it very difficult. British people, who are very careful about looking at what value they get, are the only ones who are not having problems with money here.

I was in France recently and the prices there are about half what they are here and I am not talking about family run restaurants or anything like that. Main courses like fillet de canard cost €8.50 and fillet de sanglier cost €8. One would pay that for starters here. Someone from England took me to lunch in a restaurant here. I had not been there for some years and the prices were shocking. I felt I had to apologise for the prices charged. We cannot blame it all on wine which can be quite expensive abroad. Bottle for bottle, it is much the same as prices are here, although some places have high mark ups. I think people have tried to get some control over the mark ups here.

In small and not only family-run hotels in France and Germany, one can have dinner, bed and breakfast, as I have just had and I can show the receipts, for €120 to €130 per night with wine included. I know the Ibis hotel in the centre of Amsterdam is not a smart sort of hotel but bed and breakfast costs €135 per night for two people.

I did not think car rental was that much dearer than in some other countries until I had a horrific experience with some French people last summer. They landed in Rosslare and hired a car there from an international firm. They drove around the country, which is what we are encouraged to ask them to do, and were returning home from Dublin. This international firm charged them €80 for returning the car to another destination. I did the same in Italy some time ago and was charged €10. These firms have fleets of cars in each location and one is charged €10 for the paperwork. One is not charged the money for someone to drive the car back to its original destination. These French people were absolutely furious. They had inquired ahead of time whether there would be a charge and those in Rosslare told them they were not quite sure what it would be. They thought at worst it would be perhaps €20 or €30 but it cost €80, about half what it cost to hire the car for three days. They contemplated driving back down to Wexford with the car and returning to Dublin by train which is good value, as Senator O'Toole pointed out. However, the train is very slow and takes three hours to travel the 90 miles from Wexford to Dublin. It would really need to speed up.

The regulations restaurants must put in place seem excessive whereby there must be separate lavatories from men, women, disabled people and staff. I saw the way the Italians solved this problem recently. My husband and I went in separate doors but we met on the inside.