Fáilte Ireland urges alternatives to housing refugees in hotels

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Fáilte Ireland says alternatives to using hotels for refugee accommodation need to be found as soon as possible.

There are fears the practice will lead to price-gouging in the months ahead.

At the moment, 12% of all registered tourism accommodation is being used to house refugees and asylum seekers. That rises to over 20% in some counties. Failte Ireland's barometer for January shows, 45% of businesses in the tourism sector are concerned about the lack of accommodation.

CEO Paul Kelly says it's the number one concern for the likes of attraction and tour operators. "It's not just individual businesses, it's towns, you know, in terms of it, there's, there's tourism towns around the country that are. Without the visitors and without the visitor economy, they begin to go into decay."

The expenditure minister Pascal Donohue says, those who provide accommodation for refugees should be compensated, but those payments will be kept under review.

"That level of profit, you know, can't be super high. It can't be really at the expense of the taxpayer trying to provide more accommodation in the future for refugees who'll come to Ireland. Or the cost of pushing tourists out of hotels."

Despite concerns about availability and costs overall. forty-four percent of businesses say they do expect to be up on visitors in twenty-twenty-four.