Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Senator Maria Byrne.

I welcome the Tánaiste to the Chamber and thank him for attending. I am conscious that as we speak, there are businesses right across the country that are closed not because of Covid measures but because of Storm Barra. It is a really difficult time for businesses today. This will possibly be the case tomorrow. They are extremely worried about that. In that context, about a year ago the Tánaiste and the Minister of State responsible for the OPW, Deputy O'Donovan, set up a humanitarian support scheme for businesses that were not able to secure insurance at the time. Will there be such a measure after the current storm? The Minister responsible for housing was speaking in this Chamber some hours ago about this matter. There is a case for another scheme, depending on how it goes over the next 24 hours.

I welcome the Tánaiste's contribution. The number of measures introduced in the past year and a half is phenomenal. There are two sectors on which I want to focus: hospitality and tourism. Over recent weeks, and certainly in the past two months, businesses in the hospitality sector, such as pubs, restaurants and hotels, have been really worried about what will happen at Christmas. There was almost a feeling that it was inevitable that they would be closed over the winter months. When the announcement came last week, many of the people I have spoken to were reassured that they would be able to continue and keep staff employed over Christmas. The sense I get from employers, in particular, is that they really appreciate the support that has been given to the sector over the past 18 months. The EWSS, the CRSS, the online trading voucher, the rates waiver, which has been welcomed for the first quarter of next year also, and the restart grants are among many measures put in place to support businesses. Businesses say that if it had not been for those supports, they would not be operating.

Many hoteliers, including those from Minella Hotel in Clonmel and the Anner Hotel in Thurles, have got on to me to outline their concerns. They say their occupancy rate over Christmas will drop to approximately 27%. This is a huge reduction. The hoteliers expect an occupancy rate of 5% to 8% in January and February. Therefore, there will be considerable worry over the coming months. While hoteliers welcome the announcement made last week, they have some requests. It will take time for them to see the results of the new measures that are being introduced, particularly under CRSS, to support them in keeping on their employees. Some of their requests relate to the EWSS and the qualification criteria. It has been requested that businesses that are eligible in December be allowed to requalify for EWSS supports in January. On the CRSS supports, hospitality businesses have requested that the criteria include automatic qualification for CRSS supports if they qualify for the EWSS.Many hotels have asked me to argue that the weekly cap on CRSS payments should be set at €25,000 to ensure that large hospitality businesses will not be disadvantaged by the scheme. The hotel sector is the lifeblood of many rural towns. It is the heartbeat of everything that happens and there is a strong knock-on economic effect when hotels are performing well.

On tourism, there many tour operators, including golf tour operators and other small businesses throughout the country - I am thinking of one I know in Cahir, Tourwise - that create two, three or four jobs. They get the EWSS, which is very beneficial to keeping people employed. During 2021, however, a scheme was set up through the European Union, namely, the Ireland-based inbound agents, IBIA, business continuity scheme, to support businesses when it was clear that few or no tourists were going to be coming into the country. A total of €10 million in funding was provided by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. As I think we are going to be in the same position next year, perhaps that scheme could be used again next year for these businesses. Their base has reduced by 99.6% and 93%, and a scheme like that would be very beneficial to keep them going.