The Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, has ruled out any compensation for losses to the tourism industry caused by the foot-and-mouth crisis. These losses have been estimated by the industry at £500 million this year. A delegation from the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) met Dr McDaid yesterday.
The ITIC chairwoman, Ms Eileen O`Mara Walsh, said the Minister had been impressed by the scale and immediacy of the impact of foot-and-mouth on the industry.
Ms O'Mara Walsh said ITIC knew of one coach tour operator who had invested £1 million in a new fleet, expecting the season would get under way on March 1st. This will not now happen and the operator will not have the cash flow necessary to service the debt. Cancellations were coming in from Scandinavia and Germany because customers there misunderstood some Irish Government websites providing information about foot-and-mouth. Local tour operators, she added, were interpreting advice to British visitors not to visit Ireland as meaning that it was Ireland and not the UK which had the foot-and-mouth problem.
"I'm afraid this advice is having more impact on people coming into the country than animals," she said. The French Department of Education has banned all school trips to Ireland, according to ITIC. This follows the issuing of guidance by the Irish Department of Education to abandon internal school trips. "The French are saying, `If it's not safe for Irish kids, it's not safe for French kids.'"
ITIC hopes to meet the Minister for Arts and Heritage, Ms de Valera, next week to discuss the reopening of many heritage sites. "We can understand the closure of Muckross Park, which has deer. But we don't understand the closure of Dublin Castle or Kilkenny Castle," Ms O`Mara Walsh said.
She feared Irish companies who had contracted with foreign tour operators to bring their clients to specified heritage centres could be sued for breach of contract.
A spokeswoman for Dr McDaid said the Minister was concerned about the problems facing the tourism industry and was talking on a daily basis to the task force set up within the Cabinet to examine the implications of the foot-and-mouth crisis.