Plea to save Great Southern Hotel group

The future of the Great Southern Hotel group should be protected as the foundation stone of Irish tourism, it was claimed today.

With the chain threatened with closure Michael D Higgins, Labour Party President, said its owners, Dublin Airport Authority, had failed to grasp the key role the group had played in the industry.

“Little recognition has been given to the role of the group, and of its staff, over the years during which the Great Southern Hotels chain has become the foundation stone of the Irish tourism industry,” he said.

Gary McCann, Dublin Airport Authority chairman, told the Oireachtais Transport Committee that the Great Southern Hotel Group was facing a bleak future.

It is understood spiralling costs are being blamed alongside a dip in tourism. Mr McCann said payroll costs were as high as 45% of the hotel’s turnover, compared to an industry norm of 35%.

He said allowing the hotel chain to continue to trade was impossible as the cost base was way above the norm.

The chain is made up of famed hotels such as Parknasilla Hotel in Co Kerry, and others in Galway, Cork, Killarney, Dublin and Shannon.

“At every stage in Irish history, when the sale of state-owned enterprises or businesses has occurred, it has ultimately benefited a small number of individuals and not the public,” the Labour TD said.

“I and the Labour Party have, and continue to, oppose any attempt to remove these hotels from the roles which they fulfil.”

Mr Higgins said the DAA had a basic lack of understanding of the contribution of the Great Southern Hotel Group and its staff to Ireland and to Irish hotel infrastructure.

“These include the issue of the level of training and education of many senior staff members offered by the group,” the TD said.

“The overwhelming majority of these staff members underwent their training at one of the group’s hotels.

“Indeed the Great Southern Group has trained more people for work in the hotel trade than all the other hotels in Ireland combined.”

The Government has opposed a sell-off in the past but Mr McCann called for a fresh look at the issue and to consider a sell-off.