‘20% of tourism beds’ allocated to refugees
Sector ‘over-reliant’ on hotels and B&BS to house asylum seekers
THE State is “over-reliant” on tourist accommodation and is using 20% of available beds across the country for refugees and asylum seekers, the industry has claimed.
It has been suggested that the use of hotels, B&BS and other types of tourism dwellings is costing the sector around€1.1billion.
The Government has been using hotel beds for Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers over the past number of years as part of its emergency response to the growing number of arrivals.
Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, Chairperson of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, told RTE that the Government is “over-reliant” on her members’ resources to house refugees.
She added: “As it stands right now, 20% of all tourism beds, not just hotels but other types of tourism beds, are all contracted to the State.
“If you take Clare, for example, 33% of the beds there are contracted. There are lots of towns and villages across the country where there is limited tourism activity as a result of it.
“The big picture is Failte Ireland has estimated that that will have a €1.1billion hit to the economy.
“The statistics show that
Elaina Fitzgerald Kane for every €1 spent by tourism accommodation, it results in €2.50 on ancillary spending.”
Plans for six large accommodation centres for refugees and asylum seekers are expected to be brought to Cabinet by Integration Minister Roderic O’gorman in the coming weeks.
Elsewhere, new figures published by the Department of Social Protection show that €754,169,000 was paid to Ukrainian refugees between March 2022 and the end of last month.