'Cut 12,000 rooms' call as visitors stay away
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MORE than 12,000 hotel guest rooms across the country should be closed down because there is no demand for them, a leading industry figure admitted yesterday.
Tom Haughey, chairman of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC), also said that the minimum wage "is a luxury we can't afford" and inhibits job creation.
Mr Haughey was speaking as the ITIC launched its year-end review, which claims that overseas visitor figures were down by 900,000 in 2009.
However, Mr Haughey stopped short of calling for a reduction in the minimum wage, but said that he would favour "a review".
A SIPTU spokesperson strongly rejected the suggestion and said that people in the hospitality industry "only understand pain when they are inflicting it on someone else".
Mr Haughey said the ITIC had raised the issue with the National Competitiveness Council and said it was leading to increased prices in the restaurant sector in particular, which already had a public perception as being expensive.
He said that the overhang of hotel rooms -- there are currently 61,000 in the country -- had to be tackled and blamed tax incentive policies for exacerbating the problem.
"The situation calls for a managed reduction in capacity, through full or partial closure of hotels ... conversion of properties to other uses, and changes in the regulations governing hotel capital allowances," Mr Haughey said.
He declined to elaborate on which hotels and what locations would be affected by the closure of 12,200 rooms.
Members of the ITIC include Aer Lingus, CIE, the Dublin Airport Authority, Failte Ireland, Guinness Storehouse, Jameson and the Irish Hotels Federation.
Although acknowledging that there were difficulties in the tourism sector, SIPTU said that the industry was notorious for only paying the minimum wage as part of profiteering during the boom.
"The National Employment Rights Authority has said that they are one of the worst offenders when it comes to paying the minimum wage," the spokesperson added.
"SIPTU has already given a reduction in premium payments, such as those for Sunday working, and the employers accepted that. But no sooner had they taken it than they came back for more."
Yield
Ireland is on course to earn around €5bn from tourism this year, €4bn of which comes from overseas visitors, the ITIC said. The industry yields around €1.3bn for the Exchequer, it is claimed.
The total number of visitors here in 2009 is expected to be 6.5 million, with the number of holidaymakers coming to the country falling by 20pc.
The number of Irish people holidaying at home also dropped, but by a smaller margin of 8pc, the ITIC said.
The main decline was from high-end business travellers. It said factors such as administrative costs were keeping prices high. But it said economic recovery in Ireland's top four markets -- Britain, the US, Germany and France -- could lead to an upturn in the industry's fortunes in 2010.
- Fiach Kelly
Irish Independent
