asked the Minister for Finance if he will state whether American visitors to Ireland pay their hotel and other expenses in dollars or sterling; and, if the latter, if he will advise, recommend or order that such payments should be in dollars.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - American Visitors' Expenses.
Mr. Byrne
I have no power to make regulations as to the form in which Irish residents accept payment from American visitors, and if I had such power I would certainly not contemplate asking Americans to undergo restrictions and formalities which are not applicable to visitors from other countries.
An American visitor is entitled to discharge his obligations in local currency. In the normal course he has obtained such local currency by selling dollar currency, or negotiable drafts bought by him with dollars, and to an Irish bank or bureau de change.
Where the American visitor has made an hotel booking in advance, my information is that such advance bookings are normally made through a travel agency which pays the Irish hotel for the accommodation. It is clearly necessary that an American travel agency which makes such a booking should pay the Irish hotel in dollars or their equivalent, and equally, that an Irish travel agency which has received dollars or their equivalent from its principal should pay the Irish hotel by local cheque or other local currency. Where American visitors book through a British travel agency accommodation in Irish hotels as part of a tour of these islands, the British agency will usually (unless it arranges for payment in dollar form through its New York office) make payment to the Irish hotels in sterling in accordance with sterling area arrangements. It would be out of line with our membership of the sterling area for the exchange control to insist that, in the case of these payments, an exception should be made to the general arrangements under which debts between Irish and British residents are paid in Irish currency or sterling as the case may be.
It will be understood that in those cases where accommodation in Irish hotels for American visitors is paid for in sterling via British agencies, the corresponding dollars are not lost to this country but will form part of our dollar earnings for which we can claim credit in the sterling area dollar pool. At the same time I would much prefer that such cases should be exceptional, and I hope that so far as possible bookings will be made by American visitors and paid for in the alternative ways which bring directly to account through the Irish banking system the proceeds of this most important source of dollar income, the development of which can help so greatly to reduce our dollar deficit. Irish hoteliers and Irish travel agencies can co-operate in securing these direct dollar payments to the maximum, and I am sure that they will do their best to achieve that result.
With regard to Question 21, I shall have to consider whether the matter which the Deputy desires to raise involves legislation. If it does, it may not be raised because legislation cannot be advocated on an adjournment debate.