Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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317. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the engagement she has had with representatives of the hotel industry regarding room availability; and her views on whether this matter will present difficulties during the tourist season. [21872/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC), the key umbrella body for the tourism industry, has submitted a report to my Department on the impact of the Ukraine conflict on tourism supply and on the wider tourism ecosystem.?? The report calls, inter alia, for a reduced dependence on tourism accommodation for humanitarian purposes and a geographically balanced distribution of such usage across the country.

My Department has examined the report and I met with ITIC in December 2022 following its publication. Officials in my Department and Fáilte Ireland meet with representatives of the tourism sector, including the Irish Hotels Federation, on a monthly basis. These meetings, hosted by Fáilte Ireland, focus on the key issues and challenges facing the sector.

The Hospitality and Tourism Forum, of which the Irish Hotels Federation is a member, continues to meet regularly and I co-chair the Forum with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Forum met most recently on 1 February for a very useful engagement regarding the challenges facing the sector.

The use of tourism accommodation to meet humanitarian needs, while necessary in the short term, could have impacts on downstream tourism and other businesses. I have raised with Government colleagues my concerns about the potential impacts on tourism businesses of a significant portion of the national hotel stock no longer being available to tourism due to humanitarian accommodation needs. I have asked my officials and Fáilte Ireland to do further research on trends in the 2023 season, with particular focus on those parts of the country that are most affected by loss of tourism accommodation, and to assess what mitigation measures could be considered.

The State has invested heavily over the decades in building the tourism sector to become the key employer in large parts of the country and in ensuring a strong pool of tourism attractions, activity providers and related tourism businesses. I recognise the importance of ensuring that such businesses are able to cope with and trade through the loss of business that tourism accommodation displacement causes and I will continue to engage with Government colleagues on this matter.