Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach, an Teachta Ó Murchú, for allowing me to table this Topical Issue. I am disappointed that neither the Minister for Justice nor the Minister for Education are here. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, has responsibility for procurement, so she might be able to answer me. I refer to the whole situation of the procurement of hotels throughout the country, but especially in Tipperary. Racket Hall in Roscrea and Dundrum House Hotel are landmarks and beacons of our tourism industry. The beautiful Kilcoran Lodge Hotel has been in operation for more than 125 years. There are wonderful staff there and I sympathise with them. There is Hearne's Hotel in Clonmel of Charles Bianconi fame, who gave us our first transport system. Throughout Tipperary there are hotels for tourism. I think we had a 25% reduction in tourism figures and visitors in January. We had a 30% reduction in February. If this is not alarming to the Minister of State and to the Government, that is shocking. This has been moved from the Department of integration, which I welcome, to the Department of Justice but I cannot understand for the life of me why the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has not had sight of it yet nor has the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy. I thank both of them for engaging with me. I have tabled a Topical Issue but the Minister for Education, where it rests at the moment, is not here either. This is a shocking indictment of the democratic process and accountability in Dáil Éireann. None of them are here. The Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, has come in as the junior Minister. I mean no disrespect to her and wish her well but this is not good enough. I know the only area she has responsibility for is procurement. I spoke of the Kilcoran hotel. There is subterfuge there with shady owners. We did not know who owned it but we found out. The genie is out of the bottle. The owners, who have been flushed out, applied to Tipperary County Council for section 5. We know who they are and what they are, and what they want is a quick buck. They are not interested in the community. The Kilcoran hotel, like Dundrum House Hotel, has been home to so many christenings, first communions and confirmations. Indeed, the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, told me that, as a buachaill óg, he was a page boy at the wedding of his late uncle and aunt, who is a member of the O'Brien family and is living in Ardfinnan, in the Kilcoran hotel. The Dundrum hotel, which was owned by the Crowe family, is a magnificent resource, but it is riddled with court cases at the moment. There was a hearing yesterday involving the receiver. A shady owner, to put it mildly, has that as well. It is being contested and the Wennings from America, who own it, are trying to get him out of the place. The communities are not able for this. There are no GP services. There are no transport services. Kilcoran is about 6 miles from Cahir and the parish of Ballylooby. It is a wonderful beacon with great staff and it is just off the motorway. It is a great location to improve our potential for visitor numbers in Tipperary and the fíorfháilte of the Tipperary people for anybody who visits wherever they come from. We are not anti-immigration, but it is reckless in the extreme to take over businesses of long standing, which have given employment and are a valuable resource to the county and to all who visit, without consultation. I have had some engagement from Eibhlin Byrne from the engagement team, but there is no consultation. The Minister of State is in procurement. This telling of public representatives after a contract is signed is nothing short of scandalous, blackguarding and disrespectful of elected representatives who are trying to deal with the community. The communities there are good people. In Dundrum, they have been at the gates for 225 days or more. They are standing there, peacefully protesting - they are not anti. The Ukrainians were integrated and working, but the Government is turning it into an IPAS centre. This is reckless endangerment of an industry and communities. The Minister of State has it in her own documentation that the demographics cannot be changed by more than 5% in an area with an IPAS centre. Dundrum is being changed by 125% because, according to the last census, there are just 220 people in the village and more than 280 people are being put in. Kilcoran is similar. It is a rural parish and area. It is a great community with great people. Where is the spirit of the Gael and ní neart go cur le chéile in the dividing the Government is doing? It is not fair either to the people who go in there. There is no transport, GP services or anything else. I hope the Minister of State has a good answer for me because they want answers off me, and I am looking for answers off her.

Sentiment score: 0.10

Much of what the Minister of State read out to me in that reply was simply untrue. Dundrum House Hotel - the famous Crowe family for generations has had that hotel - is the only hotel not only in Dundrum village, but in the whole west Tipperary community. That turns the Department policy on its head. We have the wonderful Cahir House Hotel in Cahir operated by Robert Scannell and David Walsh, its two co-owners. They provide a great service. They have often told me they could make a lot more of money out of this. The fact is the Government is paying too much per night per person for this. It is so lucrative that unsavoury individuals are exploiting it and exploiting people who go to that accommodation. The Minister of State mentioned transport. People cannot get TFI transport in Kilcoran and Ballylooby, but the Government is prepared to put on a public transport service for the IPAS people. That is discrimination against Irish people of south Tipperary. Why is there such an attack on Tipperary? We played a huge part in the War of Independence, with the first shots fired. Here we are now, with a vein of our hotels right through the middle of the county being taken up and the Department's subterfuge. The biggest farce of all is we are now 120 days after the Government formed and we still do not have a Minister in charge of it. The Minister for equality does not want anything to do with it. She is not even here this morning. It is in her lap at the moment but it is meant to be transposed to the Department of Justice. I welcome Jim O’Callaghan and his comments and his actions so far, and the fact that up to 81% of IPAS applications this year are being refused. It is like we were blindfolded before this and our Border was like a sieve. There is messing around, though. I was delighted we moved away from Roderic O'Gorman's Department, but now it is in no man’s land and unsavoury individuals are exploiting the situation. Eibhlin Byrne and her team are doing their best to engage with us, but engagement after the fact is not acceptable in a democratic society. There must be engagement. Politicians, including local councillors and ourselves, must be consulted. How are we going to explain to the people if we do not know and this kind of subterfuge and deceit is going on? Shady deals have been done with people who are unsavoury characters in both hotels I am talking about, and that is putting it mildly.

Sentiment score: 0.03