A West Cork hotelier says more needs to be done to support the hotel industry in the face of rising energy costs.
Neil Grant, Manager at the Celtic Ross Hotel revealed how last years electricity bill for the month of August was €8,800 while this years bill is a whopping €24,600.
He says while there is a scheme in place to help hoteliers the supports are not enough and he's appealing directly to the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure for urgent help.
Neil Grant says this winter could be the hardest ever faced by hospitality businesses with insurance bills also rising and less footfall over the winter season.
Speaking to RedFM News in the past few minutes, Neil Grant from the Celtic Ross says this is a bigger crisis than Covid:
"This is unprecedented, our energy bills have tripled in the last six months so if this continues, that's eventually going to be €90,000. So make no mistake, it's a bigger crisis than what we saw during COVID and my main concern is that we need the same level of support as we we got during COVID, if not more. It's going to be a kind of tense kind of month or so to look ahead and forecast how it will play out."
