Fáilte Ireland Issued €137mn In Refunds To US Tourists Over Bad Weather

YET ANOTHER statutory body has been engulfed in scandal today. While chaos still reigns at RTÉ it has emerged that Fáilte Ireland has been engaging in underhanded and secretive payment arrangements with American tourists for at least the last decade.

WWN can confirm that hush payments have been given to US visitors in the form of refunds if the visitors in question were subjected to bad weather conditions during their stay.

“Yanks are the lifeblood of the Irish tourism industry so Fáilte Ireland used a barter account and other nod and winks to enable to payment of refunds to tourists that visited Ireland after seeing green and sunny tourism adverts only for them to catch pneumonia while visiting a Cliffs of Moher that couldn’t be seen due to fog and rain,” an insider told WWN.

“While not implicitly stated, in exchange for the full refund tourists were expected to return home and talk about the amazing sun-kissed holiday they did not have to friends and family which would in turn result in more tourists visiting Ireland,” added the source.

The ‘bad weather bonus’ as it was known internally at Fáilte cost the body as much as €137mn in the last decade although when weighed against the €47bn tourists spend in Carrolls gift shops every day it is claimed it more than balances itself out.