Mattie McGrath calls for zero VAT and tailored tourism support

Minister, I welcome your frankness and your replies and your understanding, and I mentioned at the outset a wonderful, proud Tiberalea woman, Laura de Botlaire, who was late to rest in An Tainoch in Modna Noob, she was a powerful woman of song and history, and her girls in Bruberu and Castle mainly, and indeed all over Ireland, in this house, in the Heritage Knights, and indeed all over the world, with Bruberu to her, Nora was, you know, a font of wisdom, a wonderful woman, and also give huge guidance to the young people at Bruberu every year, a great fun as well, and indeed La Rosa and Monaco sent his eulogy today to put somebody else to read, the art store, so I sympathise with La Rosa and Oona, and indeed everybody involved in the music and song, and culture, a proud Tiberalea, but a proud Gail Gore, and her honour, an Irish woman, she's beaten in April, and her honour, an Irish woman, Minister of Tourism, we know how important it is, and many facets, and it's been outlined to you here today, and the COVID-19 is going to have a massive impact, we must do something to put manners on the insurance companies, we have called for many issues, and they've been dealt with or deputies before, they show no respect or no understanding about the hoteliers, we see now at least at the moment where the companies, the power companies, and the utility companies, the standing charges are being waived, about time, but the insurance companies have been just ripping people off, and now the hotels and pubs are empty, and the roads are scarce, and there are accidents, thankfully, so we need to acknowledge that as well. Minister, there's many areas of truth I'd like to mention in Tiberalea, because of course, from Rife and Carrick Insure, up to Clonmillan, and our new blue way, and indeed on to Cashel, the famed rock of Cashel, Holy Cross, right up into Nina, Roscree, and all parts of Tiberalea, and where Tiberalea leads, the old adage says, Ireland follows, and we are ready and willing, and will be, and I thank you for your visits, to get going again, but we need the supports, and we need the VAT sorted out, we need zero VAT, we need more supports rather than loans, because we can't have the banks beating down our necks, and there's many other aspects of tourism that we might not even think about, and education and tourism, and can the Minister provide some clarity for education and tourism providers? I'm sure, I'm sure that you're familiar with the foreign students who come to our country every summer for English language courses and exchanges, students that enrol in our secondary schools, many of whom, the programme operators, are now left in limbo, like many others as a result of the current crisis, they don't know where they're coming and going. One such wonderful operator is Kim Connolly O'Grady, who runs the Gift Life Experiences Limited in South Tiberalea. She coordinates and facilitates the travel arrangements and education courses for up to 200 students from Spain to South Tiberalea every year, and a mixture of three-week summer programmes, and also school placements. And we see these students, and we get a lot from them, and they love it, and they get involved in the community, and then they send back their families, and there's a huge tourism link to that. She's highlighted, Kim has highlighted a number of issues with me. She has no choice but to cancel all plans for her three-week July programme, due to the uncertainty, and also the likelihood that students would have to self-isolate for 14 of 21 days here, and indeed, she's currently insured as to where she stands financially, in terms of deposits and flight refunds, as other deputies, like Deputy Noel have mentioned. She's also a significant loss, over half of the students signed up, and are pre-booked to travel to that school here in September. They all now have dropped out, due to the uncertainty. These students contribute a lot, as I said, to the local economy, and of course our many tourist sites, as I mentioned, Tiberalea, and the company also applies four permanent people with many, many other summer jobs and temporary jobs. Minister, I will provide the details of all these to you in writing. I'm hoping that you will keep education and tourism to the forefront here as well, as well as our publicans. And the Vendors Association are out there lobbying now, and rightly so, but I don't know, one size doesn't fit all. Like the many small pubs that I like to go into, and, you know, family-run pubs, some of them hundreds of years old, they don't have the space like some of the bigger pubs, so it's not a one size fits all. Same with other tourism products, you know, the smaller, you know, the fishing, and the work to knock men down, active have done, and not throw the London festival in Tloheen, and many communities like that, care castle in tourism. They need to be supported, and we need to tailor this, I think you've mentioned it already, to different size and different facets of the tourism industry. It can't be one size fits all, and the Vendors lobby is strong, but it should ensure that all people, many who are non-Vendors as well, need to be supported. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.