The Clare Tourism Advisory Forum has penned an open letter to Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman imploring him to explore all possible opportunities to ensure accommodation provided to Asylum Seekers is more evenly dispersed across the country.
The letter states that the repurposing of hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses has resulted in a significant loss to the local tourism economy.
In the letter seen by Clare FM, The Clare Tourism Advisory Forum describes a matter of serious concern facing those operating within the local tourism and hospitality sector.
The representative body for tourism in the county has appealed to Minister O’Gorman to explore all possible opportunities for ensuring accommodation provided to Asylum Seekers is evenly dispersed across the country rather than being heavily concentrated in western tourism reliant counties such as Clare.
The letter states that the repurposing of hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses has resulted in a 37% reduction in the number of available bed nights here and has caused a significant loss to the local tourism economy and consequently impacted Clare’s competitiveness.
The Forum has acknowledged the unprecedented crisis facing Ireland’s obligations to accommodate International Protection Applicants, however they have stated that efforts to reduce reliance on tourist dependent hospitality providers would be welcome.
The group is imploring the Minister to consider all properties under the remit of the Defence Forces, the Office of Public Works, Department of Transport, Department of Education along with other State Agencies for use as emergency accommodation.
Letter from the Clare Tourism Advisory Forum To Minister For Integration, Roderic O’Gorman
“Dear Minister O’Gorman, The Clare Tourism Advisory Forum, the representative body for the tourism industry in County Clare, wishes to bring to your attention a matter of serious concern to those operating within the local tourism and hospitality sector.
We are appealing to you to explore all possible opportunities for ensuring accommodation provided to International Protection Applicants and those seeking temporary protection is more evenly dispersed across the country, instead of being heavily concentrated in western counties such as County Clare that are reliant on tourism.
The 37% reduction in the number of available bed nights in County Clare due to the repurposing of hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses has resulted in a significant loss to the local tourism economy and has, consequently, impacted County Clare’s competitiveness.
The County Clare tourism sector is robust, and the lengthy track record of local operators working together to promote and develop our industry has been instrumental in partly offsetting the impact of reduced bed nights in County Clare.
With a view to easing the accommodation shortage in the Clare hospitality sector and in support of the Government’s programme of sourcing appropriate accommodation for international protection applicants and those seeking international protection, the Clare Tourism Advisory Forum respectfully requests your government to intensify efforts to audit and repurpose State-owned properties for accommodation.
This includes all properties under the remit of the Defence Forces, the Office of Public Works, Department of Transport, Department of Education along with other governmental departments and State Agencies.
While Clare tourism operators acknowledge the unprecedented crisis facing Europe and Ireland’s international obligations to accommodate International Protection Applicants and those seeking temporary protection, we feel that the County Clare hospitality sector has contributed more than most other parts of Ireland and that efforts to reduce the dependence on accommodation providers in tourism-reliant counties would be welcomed.
We look forward to hearing from you regarding the Government’s stated position on this issue, which, if forthcoming, might ease the concerns of our members and help to protect the future viability of our sector.”
