The chairman of Tramore Town Commissioners has been sharply criticised for questioning the "quality" of visitors coming to the town on holidays. Mr Michael Flynn of the Progressive Democrats said there had been a "noticeable decline in the quality of visitors to the resort this summer" and a particularly nasty element was present during August.
"Are we beginning to market Tramore to a different type of client, or why is it that the quality of individual coming here seems to be going downhill?" he asked.
His comments, at a meeting of the town commissioners this week, have angered local tourism interests who say they were offensive and could damage the image of the area.
Ms Noreen O'Shea, the chairwoman of Tramore Tourism, which represents accommodation providers, pubs and restaurants, said Mr Flynn was wrong to label people. "An awful lot of people come to Tramore year after year and I'm sure they wouldn't like to be labelled in this way."
Mr Flynn, she claimed, appeared to believe that people should be asked for their CVs before they booked a bed in the town. "We are in the tourism business. We have to take the good with the bad, but 99.9 per cent of people, I reckon, are nice."
She said more people than ever were visiting Tramore, which inevitably meant there would be "an extra few troublemakers", but there had been no problems this summer. Tourism interests had worked hard to extend the season in the town and "comments like this could do untold damage".
Mr Flynn, however, said a lot of people in the town agreed with him and he stood over everything he had said. He was being "extremely positive" in drawing attention to a potential problem before it arose.
In the past three years, 600 holiday apartments had been built in the town and the management companies needed to be careful about how they marketed them.
"Local people have a certain quality of life that has to be maintained. You can't bring in a rough element that's going to intimidate the local people, and there is the potential for that to happen with the pressure that's there to fill these rooms.
"I'm not criticising anyone that comes to Tramore. Lovely people come to Tramore but there's much more bed space than there was several years ago and it requires monitoring to ensure standards are kept."
Gardai had confirmed, he said, that there was a "particularly rough element" in Tramore this summer. A lot of these people had stayed in apartments.
Other town commissioners also criticised Mr Flynn for his remarks. Ms Maureen O'Carroll said he had insulted people by referring to a decline in the quality of visitors.
