RTE star Claire Byrne has slammed greedy Dublin hotels for charging tourists “as much as they possibly can” on St Patrick’s Day.
The presenter took aim at hoteliers in the capital for their price hikes for the festivities and said the hospitality industry was “laughing in our face”. This comes as stories surfaced of hotels charging eye-watering room prices.
One North Dublin hotel was charging more than €1,300 for a room for three nights starting on March 17, while a city centre apartment was being advertised for St Patrick’s Day for €1,172 - breakfast not included. Irish Tourism Industry Confederation chief Eoghan O’Mara Walsh said the St Patrick’s Day weekend was particularly busy because of the parade, the Six Nations clash, and Mother’s Day.
Read more: Dublin hotels and hostels charging €1,600 per room for St Patrick's Day
But the broadcaster hit back and said the cost of hotels are hiked whenever there is a big event in Dublin. When asked if he believed prices would drop over the summer months, Mr. O’Mara Walsh said a large proportion of accommodation in Ireland was now being used to house refugees.
He said: “I think there is an acute accommodation supply shortage, and there has been for years. It’s compounded particularly this year by the fact about 30 per cent of all tourism beds in regional Ireland are contracted to the government for humanitarian reasons. So, unfortunately, you’ll have situations in regional Ireland in tourism towns where there is no tourism beds.”
Mr O’Mara Walsh said the Government had an “over-reliance” on the tourism industry to house refugees which was having a knock-on effect on restaurants and other attractions in the area. Earlier this week, the Government extended the 9 per cent VAT rate for the hospitality sector – cut from the pre-pandemic 13 per cent – for a further six months.
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