AQW 2391/22-27

Mr Andrew Muir
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 29/06/2022
Answered On Date: 14/07/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy when his Department intends to bring forward a dedicated and bespoke Hospitality Strategy to help drive the sector's recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Answer:

Hospitality cuts across a number of Executive Departments. My Department and the wider Executive implemented a wide range of support schemes to help drive the hospitality sector’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am pleased that the hospitality sector can this year look forward to a summer season free of any COVID related restrictions and I am hopeful for a

positive summer.

Many of the topics that would need to be considered within a Hospitality Strategy are outside the remit of my Department, e.g. liquor licensing, use of outdoor spaces, pavement café licenses, opening hours. If Ministers agreed on the need for such a Strategy, it would therefore need to be a cross departmental piece of work.