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1:58

rooms are very quiet. And

2:00

even bookings forward

2:03

are not strong at this

2:05

point in time. So there's a little bit of

2:07

concern there. So how's price come back to bite us?

2:10

Well, obviously there are issues around

2:12

price. In fact, if you were

2:15

taking a break now, you'd get very reasonable

2:17

prices in hotels in Dublin and around the

2:19

country. Price comes back

2:21

to bite us because we're an expensive country. We

2:24

have a high rate of that, as we've discussed

2:26

exhaustively. We have a high minimum

2:28

wage. Both in those cases

2:30

were the third highest in Europe. So

2:32

yes, it's an expensive destination. We can't do

2:35

it as cheap as they can do it

2:37

in Spain and Portugal and Croatia and Greece

2:39

because our cost base is so much higher

2:41

here in this country. So

2:45

usually what happens, the texters text

2:47

in and say they could get a flight

2:49

to 40 euro flight on Rhineair and a

2:51

cheap hotel and cheap food. But the reality

2:53

is if there's nine million visitors come to

2:55

Ireland every year, if you want to come

2:57

to Ireland, it's not going to be as

2:59

cheap as those destinations I've mentioned. I mean, some

3:01

of the comparisons that we did,

3:04

this is for May the

3:06

17th to the 19th,

3:08

all rooms with free cancellation

3:10

include breakfast. In

3:12

Ireland, the deals are a total price.

3:15

Upward the prices are per person, but

3:17

include flights and also free cancellations and

3:19

breakfast. So let's take the Galma Hotel

3:21

in Galway, classic King room with breakfast,

3:24

free cancellation, 702

3:26

euro at 90,

3:29

a classic twin with free cancellation

3:31

and breakfast, 729. You

3:34

can go to Barcelona, the four star Gottyco

3:36

Hotel, a bed and breakfast, free cancellation, fly

3:39

out at 8 in the morning and fly

3:41

home at 825 in the evening. And

3:44

that's 638 each for two people. They're

3:48

the calculations that people are making. Yes,

3:50

but as I just mentioned to you there, you're

3:53

going to Barcelona and the minimum wage is 1300 a month

3:55

and in Ireland it's 2146. And

4:00

the same can be said of many other countries you're

4:02

going to draw a comparison to. And

4:05

I could go on all day with these kind of

4:07

comparisons. But some of the things, like I know we

4:10

tax wine for instance. So if you go in

4:13

a wine producing country where there's very little tax on the

4:15

wine and you're looking at your total bill, it's got to

4:17

be quite cheap. But you can also

4:19

look at your steak, which might cost you 40

4:21

euro here and might cost you 15 euro there.

4:23

And you're thinking, hang on a second, we're

4:25

exporting beef to the world. How

4:28

come that element alone, I

4:31

know it has to be cooked by an

4:33

expensive chef and served by an expensive waiter,

4:35

but still. Pat, you

4:37

know, the ability of restaurateurs, and I'm sure

4:39

Adrian will bear this out, the ability to

4:41

put on a good fillet steak at a

4:44

reasonable price is absolutely impossible in this country.

4:46

Adrian, would you like to? Well,

4:49

what we've seen is that the fillet steak

4:51

has got to be far and few between

4:53

in terms of menus because it's too costly

4:56

to purchase by the restaurant owner from the

4:58

supplier. And then to make

5:00

their margin, what they have to sell it

5:02

at is probably prohibited for some customers. And

5:05

hence fillet steaks are coming off the menu

5:07

and going for maybe a cheaper cost to

5:09

provide a beef at the market. I'm

5:12

just wondering if it's so expensive for the restaurant

5:14

to buy it and the farmers are complaining they

5:17

make money. Yeah, the middle

5:19

one. It seems to me

5:21

that somebody in the middle is making a money.

5:24

But we are a

5:26

high business cost country. So every

5:28

SME, whether it's in hospitality, retail,

5:30

manufacturing, everybody is in the same

5:32

boat. Our cost of production,

5:35

our cost of provision of a

5:37

service has increased substantially over the last number

5:39

of years and has increased

5:42

in huge figures

5:44

since the pandemic. Okay, so what are we

5:46

to do about it? Because if the

5:49

country is flat at the moment in terms of booking,

5:51

it may be based on last year's experience and saying,

5:53

hang on a second, go there and

5:55

it will cost you. It's good. The

5:57

experience is good, but it will cost you. part

6:00

of our promotion of Ireland as a

6:02

destination for tourism, the three things is

6:04

our people, our place and our product.

6:07

I think where we dial up the

6:10

uniqueness about Ireland is around our people and our

6:12

place. It's that extra customer

6:14

service, that extra delivery in terms

6:17

of quality of service when a

6:19

tourist comes into the country and

6:21

the satisfaction rates when you survey

6:23

tourists leaving Ireland, there is a

6:25

high degree of satisfaction among tourists

6:28

in terms of quality

6:30

of food, quality of service in

6:32

our country and actually the scenery and environment.

6:34

It brings me to another point though, you

6:36

talk about Ireland of the welcomes and whenever

6:39

we do outside broadcast we travel to hotels all

6:41

over the place and many

6:43

of the staff are not Irish at

6:45

all. They're brilliant, absolutely sometimes far better

6:47

in terms of their attitude

6:51

at the table and so on and they're welcome

6:53

at reception but they're not

6:55

Irish. So many people, there is

6:57

a labor shortage of skilled Irish people

6:59

in the sector, is there not? I'm

7:02

40 years working in the tourism and

7:04

hospitality industry. We had this discussion 30

7:06

years ago when we had, as we

7:08

described back in the accession states into

7:10

the European Union where people came here

7:12

from those countries and worked in our

7:14

hospitality industry. Now we have people working

7:16

in our hospitality industry and many other

7:18

industries including our medical profession from outside

7:20

the European Union and we're delighted to

7:22

have them here. When you were talking,

7:24

you were characterizing the appeal of here

7:27

as the distinctive Irish character

7:29

and the nature of the welcome. If

7:31

the people welcome you in many imporia,

7:34

be they overnighting in a hotel or

7:36

in a restaurant are not Irish, you can't

7:38

really use that as a selling point. Well,

7:41

I think when you look at the overall

7:43

mix in terms of Irish

7:45

and non-Irish working in our

7:47

hospitality is about 25% to 30% of

7:50

our overall workforce in hospitality which means

7:55

that at least 60% of our

7:58

workforce is Irish working in the UK. in

8:00

our industry. Now, Owen, looking

8:03

at Ireland, you look at

8:05

many countries and you look at access

8:07

costs to various countries. Ryanair

8:10

have done obviously great work in lowering

8:12

the access cost to many destinations. When

8:15

the planes are relatively empty, when they're full,

8:17

Ryanair is as expensive as the best in

8:19

the world. How are we in

8:22

terms of hotel prices, restaurant prices, access

8:24

prices? We can obsess a little bit

8:26

about this, about all the issues that

8:28

have just come up already. People

8:31

coming to Ireland are generally chasing price. The

8:34

access price, when they do chase price, tends to

8:36

be what they look at. Decisions

8:38

are sometimes made in the major

8:40

markets that Ryanair operates. Ryanair

8:43

is only 4% of Ryanair's entire business is Ireland, by

8:45

the way. They're huge

8:48

in Britain and Spain initially. People will

8:50

look at a website and come to

8:52

Dublin, not based on the hotel price,

8:54

but on the access price for the

8:56

airline. Now, they don't expect, there isn't

8:58

an expectation of cheap prices. I think

9:00

it was the great Austrian statesman,

9:02

Metternich decided Europe was

9:04

divided into beer-drinking countries and

9:07

wine-producing countries, wine-drinking countries. You

9:10

could draw a border right through the middle

9:12

of Europe. To

9:14

the north of that line, Ireland competes

9:16

pretty much with what Scandinavia does, Germany

9:19

does. It's

9:21

been a bit south of that. We're really not in

9:23

the same game that Spain and Portugal, the Irish people

9:25

go on their own holidays to. In

9:27

terms of eating out, access

9:30

fares are really how we

9:32

manage to make the money back for the

9:34

tourists inbound. Just on the

9:36

first point, we're very dependent on foreign markets. Two

9:39

of them are struggling to recover.

9:41

France and Germany, Britain is very poor.

9:44

America saved our summer last year. What

9:47

I'll say about what the hoteliers

9:49

are experiencing is Americans traditionally don't travel

9:51

in numbers in election year and we're

9:53

very dependent on them coming back. We're

9:56

not anywhere in... So this threatens to

9:58

be a bad year. We're in doubt.

10:00

anywhere back to pre-pandemic levels in international

10:02

aviation part and that is a

10:05

bit of a problem if somebody like

10:07

America doesn't pop up to save our summer like

10:09

it did last year. They're the

10:11

sort of press, but I think it was that

10:14

rendezvous France, the French tourism inbound, two

10:16

of the major sessions were about staffing

10:19

issues, cost of business, the same things

10:21

when you go to a French hotel,

10:24

it mightn't be a French person, we talk about

10:26

the Colleen in the green dress that we need

10:29

in the reception, but every other country

10:31

is facing very similar sort of problems

10:33

and we can talk a lot,

10:35

assess a little bit about

10:37

price and we've been doing so for many

10:39

many years. The cost of the

10:41

offering to the tourists in Ireland isn't

10:44

coming back to haunt us in cancellations. Our

10:46

growth was there right up to the pandemic

10:48

despite the fact we were worried about cost.

10:51

We always have to worry, we always

10:53

have to worry about what our competitors, particularly the

10:56

likes of Scotland are doing. If we write

10:59

a double

11:02

digit percentage points over the cost of

11:04

an equivalent to Scotland, that's where we're

11:06

going to start falling out of the

11:08

business, but we're doing quite well and

11:10

we're dealing with a shared

11:15

problem in the cost of doing business and

11:17

we really need to, I would

11:20

support what Adrian's doing on the 9% fact

11:22

completely because when we start

11:25

imposing conditions upon ourselves that puts us

11:27

out of our sync with our competitors,

11:29

not Spain and Portugal but the Scandinavian

11:32

countries, Scotland, Northern Germany, places like that,

11:34

that's really a known goal we don't

11:36

need to score. Britain of course is

11:38

teetering always on the brink of recession

11:40

onto the current government. It

11:42

means prices are a bit depressed, they complain

11:44

about the cost of living, but

11:46

people are going to a new area and someone will

11:48

say well actually my shopping basket

11:51

I can get a lot more bangs from my

11:53

euro up there than I can down here. That's

11:55

good for Tourism Ireland that they have six counties

11:58

that are working to advance. different regulations

12:00

but they don't always favor cost

12:02

of doing business in the north-eyed

12:05

work either. Britain the

12:07

British market inbound is a bit like

12:09

Carlsberg, the old Carlsberg ad, it reaches

12:11

bits that nobody else gets because they're

12:13

a different type of client they're not

12:15

staying in the high yield hotels of

12:17

five stars they're going to the Midlands

12:19

hotels that really you know gets coach

12:21

tours elderly people coming

12:23

through and that's a very important

12:26

market for parts of the country

12:28

that don't get the high yield

12:30

customers and that's been suffering every year

12:32

since Brexit and it's not looking good

12:34

for a company. And what about the

12:37

presence of asylum seekers and Ukrainians in

12:40

the hotel stock because a lot of the

12:42

hotels took up those contracts because you know

12:44

there's no business in the winter there was

12:46

business in the summer but you know if

12:48

you take up a contract it might be

12:50

gone for the entire year including

12:52

the tourist season. Interestingly enough

12:55

there's been a benefit from that

12:57

which we've seen we've seen a

12:59

quite a few hotels returning to

13:01

the hospitality market that got the

13:03

investment money out of housing Ukrainian

13:05

and the other asylum

13:08

seekers the investment money that was needed

13:10

and was very badly deprecated by the

13:13

pandemic so I wouldn't get

13:15

too upset about the

13:18

fact that hoteliards have used this as a

13:20

source of revenue all of them that

13:23

I've spoken to have always talked about

13:25

returning to the tourism business when that's

13:27

done. We also had a couple of

13:29

openings which helped alleviate the situation in

13:31

Dublin and in Cork and a very

13:33

big hostel opening in Dublin which will

13:35

help alleviate the situation at the budget

13:37

end. It's about 12-13%

13:40

of our beds are out on contract and

13:42

the biggest problem

13:45

with them is it's not exactly proportional through

13:47

the country there are towns in the West

13:49

of Ireland where a large proportion of the

13:51

beds are out and Adrian's members

13:53

who would rely on the spillover at

13:55

the downstream business from that are losing

13:58

out. Those certain counties you have

14:00

a higher proportion of tourism

14:02

accommodation displacement. Like the likes of County Clare

14:04

which is up near 34%, Dunnegal is nearly

14:07

40% of tourist

14:10

accommodation and Kerry as well. So

14:12

these counties and what they need

14:14

is the need to be identified

14:16

by the government as an issue

14:19

in terms of a support package

14:21

specifically for them. Unfortunately the

14:23

government has decided in their wisdom to give money

14:26

to visitor attractions and activity centres

14:28

but forgot about the local coffee

14:30

shop and local pub and restaurant who are

14:32

a downstream business. Where's the joint

14:34

up thinking there from the government? There's a

14:36

Falls Ireland grant for those visitor attractions but

14:39

there's nothing for other businesses.

14:41

Yeah and the question is if you're going to

14:43

these attractions where are you going to stay? Where

14:45

are you going to stay? Lorraine?

14:48

Yes Pat I agree with what Owen

14:50

says on the hotels who have had

14:53

the buffer of having 100%

14:55

occupancy and in our case

14:57

as well we're reinvesting some of that money

15:00

into making sure our product is ready for

15:02

to transfer back into the hospitality sector when

15:04

the time is over. When is

15:07

it going to be over? Nobody knows. There's

15:09

very little communication about what's the

15:11

future hold for the Ukrainian refugees or for

15:14

the hoteliers that are housing them and

15:16

I would welcome the government making

15:19

some announcement because people are feeling very unsure

15:21

of themselves. The recent reduction in

15:24

incoming Ukrainian refugees is

15:26

as a result of the cutback in the

15:28

offer for them but the people who are

15:30

here now are feeling very uncertain and uneasy

15:32

and you know they've lost the

15:34

kind of highlights because

15:36

of the Gaza war. There's a very

15:38

interesting thing it came across for

15:40

the budget traveler I

15:42

think it's from backpacker.com and you mentioned a

15:45

hostel a big hostel that's opening up for

15:47

the lower end of the market and what

15:49

they've done is they've taken out the cost

15:51

of access to various cities but the four

15:54

I have and this would

15:56

include paying into one attraction which could

15:58

be a museum or whatever. whatever, and

16:01

it would include food, breakfast,

16:04

lunch, dinner and a treat, which could be

16:06

a beer, transportation,

16:10

two rides and accommodation, a

16:13

hostel accommodation. Amsterdam comes

16:15

in tops. Now this is forgetting

16:17

about how you got there. The

16:19

cost per day is €118 to spend a

16:23

day in Amsterdam. The cost

16:25

in Dublin is €94 for a

16:29

backpacker. The daily cost

16:31

in Rome is €88 and

16:33

the daily cost in Barcelona is

16:35

€80. So

16:39

the backpacker gets more bangs for their

16:41

book in Barcelona, certainly than they do

16:43

in Dublin and certainly than they do

16:46

in Amsterdam. It's very interesting when you

16:48

look at the price of the pint

16:50

as our gauge. When you look

16:54

across Dublin and particularly the

16:57

very well-publicised rise of

16:59

the price of the pint in the pubs and temple

17:01

bar, you can walk 500 metres and

17:03

get a pint for €5 or €550 and you're

17:07

paying nearly ten in the temple bar.

17:09

The pubs that are charging the most

17:11

are packed. So it's not really a

17:14

price that people are making. The prices

17:16

of running on the ground when

17:20

you land in the city aren't really

17:22

a factor in people deciding to come

17:24

to Dublin or not. They do expect

17:27

Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Dublin to be around

17:29

the same level. They do

17:32

expect provincial cities in Spain to be

17:34

at a much lower level. They'd be

17:36

horrified if they were charged Dublin

17:38

prices. But where we

17:40

sit in international tourism, the expectation isn't

17:43

that you're coming here for cheap deals.

17:46

Just an interesting aside, the

17:49

National Leprechaun Museum in Dublin

17:51

has been named the country's

17:53

most boring attraction. Anyone

17:55

been to it? No. You've

17:57

been to a few attractions in your time. I've been to more boring

18:00

attractions. I was at the Barb Dwyer Museum in

18:02

Oklahoma. The

18:07

top attraction by the way is

18:09

the Branson-Sinek Railway in Missouri. That

18:11

took the number one spot with

18:13

the US occupying the top

18:15

seven spots for really attractive

18:18

attractions. Some of the

18:20

comments and it's interesting, Dan here echoes something

18:22

you said on, my family has

18:25

been in the food industry for years and we've always

18:27

made good money. But in the last 20 years we

18:29

can up our prices and the higher the

18:31

better. The more we seem to charge, the more

18:33

people seem to think it's better. So

18:35

that's the kind of the Temple Park pint phenomenon. Yeah,

18:38

it's also that they don't just think it's better. They're

18:40

coming back because it is delivering

18:42

the quality. We do a reputation

18:44

for food. We're the fourth biggest

18:46

beef export in the world. Oddly

18:48

enough, other countries have built entire

18:50

culinary reputations in our food. So

18:52

I wouldn't really worry

18:54

about trying to market low cost food

18:56

to our tourists when they're coming to

18:59

Ireland. They see cattle in the field.

19:01

They see the sheep out in the

19:03

field. They see food being produced as

19:05

it should be and environmentally in a humane way

19:07

and I wouldn't be chasing the cost on that.

19:10

Yes, that's what I wouldn't agree with that texture

19:12

there because by and large in

19:14

the restaurant business, you have to provide value for

19:16

the customer. But

19:18

the value can be ambience, detail,

19:21

service, which allows people to charge

19:23

more for the same growth. Well,

19:26

that's true, Pat, but I don't think that

19:28

formula could work universally in the restaurant business.

19:31

My great fear is that we're going to

19:33

end up with fast food chains as an

19:35

offer to the tourism sector and that's not

19:37

going to work. You could be in any

19:39

country in the world to go to an

19:41

international brand and fast food chain. But Ireland

19:43

has the unique offering and I can tell

19:45

you that the customer that's

19:47

coming to Ireland is not prepared to

19:49

pay unlimited amounts to have that experience.

19:51

So as an operator, we're

19:53

faced with the challenges of the high costs.

19:56

You can cut down the portions a little bit.

19:58

You can cut down the portions cut down your

20:00

hours a little bit, but you can't

20:02

continue to charge huge prices. And there's

20:05

a level beyond which it becomes unviable.

20:07

Let's say, for example, in one restaurant

20:09

that I operate, the minimum wage increase

20:11

alone cost us 85,000 this year. Add

20:13

the increase in

20:15

that to that and other increased cost of

20:18

food. It just wipes out the profitability. So

20:20

the contrast is we end up with

20:23

less restaurants and a few charging and

20:25

a fortune, but the nine million tourists

20:27

need a broad spectrum of offers.

20:29

I wonder, Adrian, you might be able

20:31

to help me here, how many of

20:34

the restaurants are actually sort of professional

20:36

limited companies rather than family restaurants? Because

20:39

the perception is in continental Europe, an awful

20:41

lot of them are family run. So people

20:43

do maybe all the extra hours that are

20:45

required. They're not, you know, they're cooking themselves.

20:48

So there's no really expensive chef in the

20:51

kitchen. It's, you know, family

20:53

run, family maintained. They put

20:55

an exact figure on what's the

20:57

percentage. I wouldn't have that. But you

21:00

know, you are correct. There's a,

21:02

we have far more independent restaurant

21:04

owners, independent coffee shop owners across the

21:06

country. We're not, we're not like the

21:08

United States where it is predominantly brands

21:10

across every town and street

21:13

in the States. And we pride

21:15

ourselves in the quality of our,

21:17

our food and our offering. I

21:20

read you some of the texts. My American friend

21:22

who was a regular visitor in the past says

21:24

she wouldn't come over again due to the fact

21:26

that she'd be lucky to get a broom closet

21:28

that she could afford in Dublin. At

21:30

the minimum wages are much lower

21:32

in other European countries because housing

21:34

is much cheaper and all social

21:37

services are superior, healthcare, childcare, welfare

21:39

benefits, etc. Two nights in Wexford

21:41

B&B, two dinners, 605 euro, seven nights all inclusive

21:44

Bodrum, a thousand and nine euro would

21:47

love to holiday at home, but it's

21:49

unsustainable. That's from Paul. Yes, but

21:51

in Bodrum, the minimum wage is about 500 euro

21:53

Pat. So like, you know, it's

21:56

not apples and apples, it's apples and oranges.

21:58

Yeah, but people actually are not asking. questions are

22:00

they but to the waiting staff

22:02

how much you're earning it's the experience. Yeah

22:04

but they do know I would be conscious when I'm in

22:06

Portugal if I'm about to tip I would know that that

22:08

person is on a minimum wage of about 450

22:11

an hour but the bottom line is that

22:14

Bodrum has a huge resource of people

22:16

to draw from to come and work in their

22:18

industry. Ireland is at full employment and we do

22:20

not have people we can call upon to come

22:22

and work in our industry. Another one on behalf

22:25

of my professional association I made a bid to

22:27

host an international conference here in Ireland we lost

22:29

the bid due to the costs. The

22:31

conference committee objected to all of our

22:34

costings price for accommodation food site rental

22:36

etc our country is perceived as far

22:38

too expensive by our international colleagues. Why

22:41

is fillets stakes so expensive in world terms

22:43

Ireland is a beef superpower it does not

22:46

make sense perhaps the fillets

22:48

are being produced exclusively for export that's

22:50

from Ed having just

22:52

returned from Gran Canaria where we two

22:54

adults and two nagers dined in good

22:57

restaurants having three course meals bottled water

22:59

and wine around 120 euro we will

23:01

not holiday in Ireland again sadly incidentally

23:04

many of the staff there were not

23:06

local they were from various other countries.

23:09

What about block booking in hotels as you

23:11

can't stay in a Saturday night you have

23:14

to save Friday and Saturday really unfair to

23:16

families that have to book large rooms if

23:18

they just want to get away for the

23:21

night. Sick pay is the biggest cost it's

23:23

another week's holiday which has to be covered by

23:25

another person many of my 120 staff

23:28

are putting it to

23:30

their holiday. I'm French I've lived in

23:33

Ireland for two decades welcoming family visits

23:35

regularly however their trips are becoming less

23:37

frequent due to the high cost of

23:39

living here despite them staying with me.

23:42

So Canaries own what about that

23:44

protest? Tour is out not much

23:47

not much to it from what

23:49

I can see well

23:51

publicised there five the four islands

23:53

everyone can name plus La Gomera

23:56

at 12 o'clock on Saturday and

23:58

it's There's been a reach

24:01

out in social media to gather and protest against

24:03

over tourism. One of the sort

24:06

of movement we'd have seen in Dubrovnik,

24:08

Barcelona and Venice, but the Canary Islands

24:10

is very dependent on tourism. I wouldn't

24:12

expect large numbers. I wouldn't expect any

24:14

Irish people going away to even notice

24:16

they were taking place. Pat, just one

24:18

point on the comments that you're getting in. Irish

24:21

people have suffered the winter of rain and

24:24

they need to get away to the sun. And

24:26

there happens to be times in the year you

24:28

can go when the flights are cheaper and you

24:31

can get accommodation that's reasonably priced. So

24:34

really we're talking about the people coming

24:36

into Ireland, the nine million visitors, are

24:38

coming for a different thing. They're not coming

24:40

for it to toast in the sun

24:42

and to have air conditioning running at night

24:44

in the hotel bedrooms. So frequently

24:47

we get comments from people who can go to

24:49

Barcelona and go to the Canaries and have a holiday

24:51

at half the price they can have it here. Irish

24:54

people do need to get away. I'm looking forward to it.

24:56

I'm sure you are too. Every

24:58

second day here there's a shower every hour. And

25:01

so really we're not comparing like

25:04

with like. Adrian, what has to be

25:06

done? I mean the 9% would be a help, but

25:08

would it be a panacea for

25:10

all ills or are so

25:12

many outfits still with warehouse

25:15

debt which will cut them down?

25:17

Yeah, well the warehouse debt is a portion

25:19

of our industry that are caught in the

25:21

warehouse debt and that has to be repaid

25:23

from me onwards. And you will see more

25:25

closures because of that. But

25:27

the big issue for the food-led businesses is

25:29

that 9% battery. That would be

25:31

a huge lifeline to our industry.

25:34

Otherwise you would see more and more increase

25:36

in closures. When you benchmark

25:38

this year against the height

25:40

of the recession and the financial crash, we

25:43

had one a day of closing back then. Now we have two a

25:45

day of closing now. Lorraine? I

25:47

agree that the 9% is essential and I think Simon

25:49

Harris could hit the ground running now and

25:52

reverse the trend of restaurant closing. However

25:55

on the warehouse debt, I cleared

25:57

my debt and I think it would be unfair on people to

25:59

get it. debt holiday or a

26:01

debt write-off because they're getting zero

26:03

interest. They're getting zero interest which is fair enough

26:05

but I think a lot of small

26:07

operations might close down and reopen again in

26:10

order to avoid the warehouse debt which I

26:12

think would be very unfair on those businesses

26:14

that have paid their debt. I'm tired

26:16

of hearing about the poor hotels and coffee

26:18

shops alone. What about the retailers in those

26:20

areas that they are also dependent on tourism

26:22

to top up their income? You know the

26:25

novelty shops, the tourist shops. Ellen,

26:28

as someone who's not a provider of

26:30

these services, what's the solution to make

26:33

sure that 2024 is a decent

26:35

year for tourism? Is there anything that anyone can

26:37

do? Don't score any own

26:39

goals but you know things like that

26:41

rates manage the staffing and

26:43

the permits for people coming in, try

26:46

to get chefs all of that. Remember

26:48

in the modern diverse wonderful world where

26:50

people travel so much homogenization is the

26:52

enemy. Every single one of Adrian's restaurants

26:55

and the two a day that are

26:57

closing down is losing something distinctively Irish.

26:59

We could end up in a situation

27:01

where franchises and familiar names start taking

27:04

over our provincial teams. That's not what

27:06

we want to happen. We want people

27:08

to feel they're in Ireland

27:11

and in a particular county and in a particular part

27:13

of Ireland by what they see and what they eat

27:15

when they get there. Hotelier Lorraine Sweeney, own

27:17

Corrie travel journalist Adrian Comincio of the

27:19

Restaurant Association of Ireland. Thank you very

27:22

much for joining us. The

27:24

Pat Kenny Show. With a Viva

27:26

Insurance. Weekdays at 9am. On

27:30

News Talk.