andMr. McQuillan asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he has considered whether there is a danger of providing excess hotel accommodation, referred to in a recent statement; and, if so, whether he will consider taking steps to provide increased encouragement for the provision and extension of accommodation in small hotels and guest houses which would cater for the majority of holiday makers who are not interested in luxury accommodation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hotel and Guest House Accommodation.
20.
The provision of hotel accommodation is a matter primarily for private enterprise. There is no excess but a deficiency in B and C Class accommodation. State assistance is provided through grant and loan schemes administered by Bord Fáilte under the Tourist Traffic Acts and through income tax concessions. On the basis of the information available, the Board endeavours to relate accommodation capacity to potential traffic. Bord Fáilte's immediate target for top-grade accommodation will be achieved in 1963. Selectivity is now the keynote for this grade and new projects are considered mainly on the basis of their direct traffic generating potential.
Progress in other grades, while substantial, has not been as extensive as I would wish but the situation is improving. Of the 3,200 extra bedrooms available by 1963, almost half will be in middle and lower grade hotels. This is insufficient.
Concentration now is on the improvement and expansion of existing premises, to which the various incentives apply. I regret to say that the 20% improvement grants scheme which was introduced by Bord Fáilte in January, 1960, after consultation with the Irish Hotels Federation and which was designed specifically to meet the needs of existing middle and lower grade hotels, has been availed of by only 10% of hoteliers. As encouragement to the owners of lower and middle grade premises, the Board has adjusted recently the lower limit on the cost of works eligible for improvement grants from £2,000 to £500. There are now reasonable incentives for the owners of small hotels to improve and expand their premises.
I have asked Bord Fáilte and Ostlanna Iompair Éireann to consider jointly ways and means of stimulating additional Grade B and C accommodation in areas where such accommodation is at present inadequate.
Is the Minister aware that the President of the Hotels Federation stated recently that there was grave danger that hotel bedroom accommodation might outstrip the public demand? He was speaking with reference to the high grade hotels and the fact that the majority of people who come to this country are anxious for reasonable accommodation rather than the luxury accommodation which is being provided, to a great extent by the taxpayer. Surely the Minister believes that priority should be given to the small hotels and guest houses anxious to cater for the great majority of tourists coming to this country?
First of all, no B or C class hotel proprietor has been refused assistance by Bord Fáilte because of the fact that a number of A class hotels have been started. There was a slowing down in the administration but the great majority of applications by B or C class hotels have been granted. Nothing has been put in their way. It just so happens that there has been too slow or too small a response to the grant system by hotels in that category.
Because they are not attractive. The system of grants is unrealistic, as the Minister knows.
I would not agree at all; in fact, the indications are that hotels scattered over the country have been willing to take advantage of the grant and interest free loan system. It is simply a matter that not enough have applied.
Can we take it that there has been a re-examination of this problem in recent months?
The matter is being examined.