Car hire costs more than air fare

I READ the Ryanair spokesman’s comment about overseas visitors to the mid-west being down 27% (Letters, February 16).

Has anyone in Government ever looked into the hire car companies in Ireland? They are a rip-off for tourists.

We had planned to spend some time in the south of Ireland this year. What a shock to find out that the cost of hiring a car in Ireland is more than the air fare. We were quoted €2,042 (Aus$3,169.49) for four weeks hire, plus a deposit of a further €1,600/€1900 when we arrive at Cork or Dublin airports.

Then our travel agent got back to us to say car hire companies in Ireland only take credit cards, not euro debit cards which we had already purchased knowing this was the safest way to go.

We had purchased €30,000 all in and planned to spend big in Ireland. After all, we are not sure we will be back there in the near future.

As Ireland’s currency is the euro, why do these car hire companies not take euro debit cards?

We even offered to put the full deposit on a single euro debit card, but they refused that as well. There is something very wrong with Irish car hire companies which refuse the euro.

The arrogance of some of these companies in Ireland has to be experienced to be believed. This is a great way to turn off tourists.

We emigrated to Australia in the 1960s and did not get where we are today by using credit cards. We have now decided if we can’t use euro debit cards in Ireland we will do what our friends have done – go on a cruise instead. They vowed they would not be ripped of by these people.

We had estimated our four-week trip would cost between Aus$20,000-$25,000 and that did not include accommodation or food.

I emailed one of the car hire companies in Ireland and put it to them if we arrived at Dublin airport with a euro debit card, what would happen?

He gave us our answer alright – we would not be able to get a hired car and the (Aus$3,169) we would have paid here in Australia would have to be forfeit to them.

Something has to be done about these car hire companies if Ireland wants to attract tourists from this side of the world.

I emailed a number of members of the Irish Government, including Tourism Minister Martin Cullen, but I have had no reply to date.

Our Irish paper here last week had a write-up about visitor numbers to Ireland being the lowest for years. Unless Ireland stops ripping off tourists it will stay that way for a long time.

Katie Knott

PO Box 42

Runaway Bay

Queensland 4216

Australia