Labour has repeated its call to introduce a hotel bedroom tax.

Former Dublin Lord Mayor and City Councillor, Brendan Carr, made the call following the release of new statistics which indicate the sector is booming.

Cllr Carr said: "A new independent survey by accountancy firm Crowe Horwath indicates that the average profit on each hotel room in Ireland grew from €11,990 in 2015 to €14,558 in 2016. This continues a massive upturn for the industry in recent years. The average cost of a room in Dublin now stands at €128, up from almost €112 last year and well ahead of the previous record of €121, set in 2006.

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"Last year when I was elected Lord Mayor I proposed the introduction of a 1% hotel room tax, to be used to support arts and cultural events in the city. A similar levy is imposed by many European and American cities.

"Projections have indicated that such a levy could could yield €3 million a year for art initiatives in the city. Such a scheme would benefit the tourist industry as a whole and also ensure the long term sustainable future of the hotel sector by ensuring that our city continued to develop cultural attractions on a year round basis."

(CD/MH)