Europcar's Irish chief hopes builders planned restart may lead to economy reopening

The chief of Europcar in Ireland said the car hire industry hopes the planned restart of the construction industry in the coming weeks will demonstrate that social distancing will allow workers to work safely and point the way for the rest of the economy to reopen in time.

Colm Brady, managing director of Europcar Mobility Group Ireland, said that in a normal year the business would be gearing up for its peak summer tourism from 20 locations and preparing to hire through April and May for the Irish and UK bank holidays in May.

The company which also owns Gocar.ie, would have 10,000 vehicles, available for its summer peak.

Mr Brady said that Gocar.ie is still relatively busy as drivers continue to use the cars for short trips to the shops and the doctor.

He said that construction in the coming weeks can show the way for industries to open up and for domestic tourism to return towards the end of the year.

For inward tourism, Mr Brady said the company will have to focus on hopes of recovery by the time of the UK bank holidays late in the year and for Christmas, as well as to start thinking about what St Patrick’s Day holiday will look like in 2021.

He said this time of year would normally be “a hive of activity”.

“I have seen nothing like this in 20 years even with Foot and Mouth, September 11, and the Ash Cloud,” he said.

In a normal year, Europcar would be preparing to hire staff for its summer peak through April and May and its commercial van hire business would be thriving.

The parent group in Paris has said it was in talks with the Spanish and French governments on ways to preserve its cash resources through the summer.

In an update on Wednesday, Europcar Mobility Group said it had completed plans to tap a second tranche of loans 70%-guaranteed by the Spanish state for its Europcar and Goldcar firms in Spain to meet its “financing needs and its corporate needs related to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

It said it was continuing talk with the French government and some of its banks to obtain more loans guaranteed by the French state..

“The group is also continuing its efforts through its foreign subsidiaries in countries where similar support measures have been deployed,” it said.

"As part of the cash preservation plan announced on March 23rd and updated on April 15 2020, with first the finalisation of lines of financing 70%-guaranteed by the Spanish state for an amount of €36m,the group announces the finalisation of the second tranche of this Spanish state-guaranteed programme, with new 3-year maturity lines for a global amount of €31.25m for its two operating subsidiaries in Spain - under the Europcar and Goldcar banners," it said.