Hotels “clearly incapable of functioning in the market must go out of business”, Minister for Tourism Martin Cullen has said.

“There is an overcapacity in the market of approximately 15,000 beds,” he said. “All of these do not need to go but hotels are being supported despite not being viable.” Olivia Mitchell (FG, Dublin South) said “hotels that should have gone to the wall are receiving credit from banks on the back of taxpayers’ money”. Mr Cullen said he could not countenance a situation where non-viable hotels were kept open.