Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We all know that hotels in Dublin have become very expensive. We have been hearing that across the board. I read with interest in the past few days that the journalist, Billy Keane, suggested hotels sign a pledge not to increase prices for certain events in this city. We are in the process of recovering from the crash. Hotels obviously suffered during it but no one benefits in the short term, other than the hotels, from huge prices being charged for particular events in the city and there is no long-term gain. The special 9% VAT rate for hotels introduced by this Government has been a major benefit to the tourism sector in general.