Average cost of Irish hotel room now €143 per night

This is an increase of 29pc from 2019 and is “significant,” tourism chiefs will tell TDs and Senators at a Dáil committee tomorrow.

“This increase is significant but remember this is over a four-year period and with inflation running at a very high level,” Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, will tell the Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media.

“Undoubtedly there is a small minority of tourism operators who charge excessive prices but they are not reflective of the broad tourism industry and it is important to stress this.”

It comes as around a third of beds in rural counties have been subcontracted for refugees.

Over half of hotel beds in Donegal have been given to the Government for refugees, while 39pc of beds have been contracted out in Clare and 37pc in Kerry.

“This will have a serious impact on price as demand and supply will be completely out of sync,” Mr O’Mara Walsh will say.

“There has been a supply shortage across Irish tourism accommodation for some time - this has now been compounded by the humanitarian crisis.”

Data provided to the committee shows 82pc of hotel beds in Leitrim are occupied by refugees, with this number lowering to 65pc in Longford.

Only 14pc of hotel beds in Dublin are currently taken up by migrants and the number is as low as 8pc in Kildare.

It rises to 27pc in Cork, 33pc in Tipperary and 47pc in Meath.

“Not only will this undoubtedly impact on the price of the remaining tourism beds, but, downstream tourism businesses - restaurants, attractions, inbound operators, activity providers - will miss out on the tourism dollar,” politicians will be told.