asked the Minister for Transport and Power if, in view of the amount of public money invested in the hotel industry in recent years, he will hold an inquiry into the present situation where many hotels in Dublin and elsewhere are being closed and sold for other uses, causing unemployment among hotel staffs and the likelihood of bed shortages when the tourist trade recovers.
Ceisteann—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hotel Industry.
3.
Bord Fáilte have been keeping the tourist accommodation situation under close review and, in consultation with my Department, the board are actively considering the form which future assistance for this sector should take. While it is true that, because of obsolescence and other factors, a number of hotels have been converted to other uses, I am assured by the board that there is no danger of a shortage of accommodation to cope with the demands of the recovering tourist industry.
On the manpower side, I understand that, on a nation-wide basis, there is a shortage of trained hotel staff. This is a matter that the Council for Education, Recruitment and Training in the Hotel Industry is studying in depth.
Are the Minister and Bord Fáilte prepared to accept that the owners of hotels, who received taxpayers' money from Bord Fáilte based on the employment content in the hotel business, will now be allowed to convert those hotels into office block accommodation, which is more lucrative than providing for the tourist industry?
The Deputy is embarking on a statement.
Is the Minister prepared to accept, without public inquiry, the changeover by those people?
I do not quite understand the Deputy. I am assured by Bord Fáilte that the closing of those hotels will make no difference to the amount of bed accommodation available and if somebody—it does not matter whether it is an industrialist, a farmer or a hotelier—gets a grant it is a grant, and nothing I can do, or any legislation can do, can prevent him from closing if the business is not economic. Those are the facts of life.
Surely the Minister will realise that there is more to this than bed accommodation? There is the employment content. If we are to hand out money by way of grant we must have some protection and we must see that this money will be used for what it is given for. In this case the Minister is satisfied because there will be no upset in bed accommodation—I do not know whether there will or not; nobody can forecast that —I still say that the Government and the Minister——
The Deputy must ask a question.
——must, where money is given by way of grant, ensure that it is used for the purpose for which it was given.
It has been, of course. When the grants were given, and they must be pre-1969 grants, they were used to construct hotels. As regards the employment side, I am assured by the Department of Labour and CERT that there is a shortage of trained hotel staff in the country.
If there is a shortage of hotel staff there is a way to remedy that.
The Deputy has been given a lot of latitude on this question. We cannot debate it today.
There is a Council for Education, Recruitment and Training of staff. They are doing exactly that.
Would the Minister not agree that, when private individuals are given a grant, it is conditional on their living in the house for which the grant was given for some time? Would he not think the same rule should apply to hotels, that when a grant has been given for an hotel and the building is not being used for that purpose, it should be given back?
I do not precisely know in each individual case what conditions were attached to the giving of the grant, I was not here then, but that was not one of the conditions, as far as I know.
(Dublin Central): In my constituency two hotels closed which, in my opinion, should not have closed—Jury's and the Moira Hotel.
This is Question Time. The Deputy is making a statement.
(Dublin Central): Here is a situation in which a company which got a considerable grant in recent years——
We are developing an argument.
(Dublin Central): There was every justification for keeping them open but they were closed for commercial development.
I have dealt with the situation in general and I do not think I should discuss particular cases.
They all got particular grants.