Tourism industry leaders in the northwest yesterday spelled out their opposition to a Government scheme to merge them with other groups under a national umbrella.
Delegates to an emergency general meeting of the North West Regional Tourism Authority voted not to wind up the company until Minister for Tourism John O'Donoghue agrees to meet them.
The Minister wants the authority wound up so that it can be merged with Fáilte Ireland along with all other regional tourism groups.
The other groups have already been wound up to meet the Government deadline of July 1st for a merger with the national body.
But the northwest authority, representing tourism interests in Sligo, Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan, refused as members believed they would not get a fair deal under the new arrangement.
Chairman Seán McEniff told the meeting in Bundoran, Co Donegal, that the Minister had refused several requests for talks in recent months. Therefore he was proposing to reject a Fáilte Ireland request for confirmation that the northwest authority had been wound up.
Mr McEniff urged the meeting to defer the winding up process for at least three weeks, saying he had been assured by TDs in the region that a meeting with the Minister would be arranged in that time.