MEDIA STATEMENT

Friday, 3^rd December 2021: The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has described as extremely disappointing the low level of supports announced by the Government. They fall far short of what is urgently required given the scale of the crisis now facing the sector.

IHF President Elaina Fitzgerald Kane states: “It is devastating that the Government has failed to restore employment supports for hotels, despite the collapse in business levels witnessed throughout the country by our sector. We are calling on the Government to revisit this decision and urgently restore EWSS supports to November levels.”

“The Government’s failure to support our sector is all the more disappointing given the assurance received that we would not face a cliff edge in terms of financial supports, but this is exactly what has happened.”

“Normally, December trade sustains our sector during the very challenging off-peak months at the start of the new year, but this has been wiped out this year. Currently hotels are reporting average occupancy rates of 35% for December and just 13% in January and February.”

“The Government can dress this up whatever way it likes – but the reality is that the supports announced come nowhere close to being enough given the extent to which hotel business levels have been decimated in recent weeks. This is a direct result of public health measures. Now in addition to widespread cancellations, we face further restrictions and significantly reduced Government supports. It is a hammer blow to our sector.”

“The EWSS was designed to support employment, and failure to reinstate it to November levels poses enormous challenges in our quest to restore employment levels. While we acknowledge the measures around local authority rates and CRSS, they will not sustain the off-peak season.”

“We are calling on the Government to reconsider its decision to reduce EWSS supports and to urgently restore them to November levels up until April 2022. This is about helping our industry to restore the 270,000 livelihoods across the country that it supported before the pandemic, equating to 1 in 10 of all Irish jobs, with 70% of these jobs located outside of Dublin. These jobs matter – not only to the people working within the industry but to the wider economy, especially the many parts of regional Ireland where tourism is the only show in town.”