TOURISM IS
WE’RE known worldwide as the land of a hundred thousand welcomes.
But Ireland’s cead mile failte is under threat as a wave of restaurant closures — coupled with Government policy of using hotels to house asylum-seekers — threatens to decimate tourism this summer.
It came to the fore yesterday with the news Drogheda’s biggest hotel — the four-star D Hotel — is to house 500 asylum seekers.
Local councillors said it will “hugely affect” tourism in the Boyne Valley town.
Meanwhile, across the country, restaurateurs are seeing business closures all around and weathering the storm.
Anthony Gray, owner of Eala Bhan and Hooked restaurants in Sligo, told Irish Mirror: “It’s destroying towns and family-run businesses — it’s destroying our cead mile failte.
“In a lot of places now, you can’t even find somewhere to have a bite to eat. We’ve just seen the popular Baker Boys cafe and bakery close down. The dogs on the street could see this coming – we’re all struggling. Government needs to wake up.”
Two restaurants a day are shuttering, from Dublin to Cork to Donegal, on top of more than 320 restaurants and cafes that have closed in the past six months.
In Dublin, Blackrock’s Coal, famous for its steak and cocktails, closed at the weekend, hot on the heels of celebrity haunt Dig In on the capital’s Camden Street, Clanbrassil House nearby.
Also biting the dust is the Tolteca chain, Mario’s Italian restaurants in Terenure and Sandymount and Ballally cafe Munch.
Adrian Cummins of the Restaurants Association of Ireland predicts a tsunami of closures by summer unless the VAT rate on hospitality is restored to 9 per cent. It reverted to 13.5 per cent after gong down to 9 per cent during lockdowns.
In Cork, the hugely popular Nash 19 and White Rabbit have closed. Nowhere is immune to the carnage sweeping the industry, putting towns and villages that depend on tourism into a ‘doom spiral’.
In Sligo, 1,300 of its 3,000 registered tourist beds are now booked by the Government’s Department of Integration to house refugees.
A recent Fáilte Ireland report revealed 32 per cent of all tourist beds outside Dublin are closed off, with tourist towns along the west coast bearing the brunt — 50 per cent of beds in Donegal, 33 per cent in Clare and 40 per cent of beds in Kerry are booked out, where locals claim €2.4bn has been sucked out of the local economy as a result.
Fewer tourists in hotels translates into fewer bookings in restaurants already struggling to make ends meet with spiralling costs and the recent VAT increase crippling finances.
“What we’re hearing back is people can’t get accommodation here in
Sligo, so they’re staying on the outskirts in Gurteen, Tubbercurry, as far as Galway, and travelling up to Sligo,” Anthony told Irish Mirror.
“One group from Canada stayed in an Airbnb in Bundoran and drove to Sligo. Travel agents are saying American tourists are choosing somewhere else to stay.”
He added: “At Rosses Point out the road, with 800 people and the hotel, the Yeats Country Hotel now out of action, full of Ukrainians and all the businesses drastically affected.
“Places like us here in Sligo, all the work we’ve done to build our reputa
In a lot of places you can’t find somewhere to get a bite to eat ANTHONY GRAY SLIGO RESTAURANT OWNER