Taxpayer to foot €1.2m bill for failed Joe Walsh Tours A percentage of customer refunds for Joe Walsh Tours, which ceased trading last month, and six other agents will be covered by the state 16th May, 2021
The Travellers’ Protection Fund, which is about €1.4 million in size at the moment, is expected to be almost totally depleted by the collapse of Joe Walsh Tours and six other travel agents. Picture: Rollingnews.ie
The liquidation of Joe Walsh Tours will leave the Irish taxpayer liable for €1.2 million, the
Business Post understands.
The company, which ceased trading last month after 60 years in business, owed more than €5 million in refunds to customers who had placed deposits on package holidays.
The closure of Joe Walsh Tours is a major blow for Irish-organised pilgrimages to Lourdes and other Catholic shrines on the continent, says a priest who has brought thousands to Lourdes annually for three decades.
The departure last week of JWT Pilgrimtours was a blow, he said. Anyone could get a cheap flight to Biarritz, Toulouse or Bordeaux if they wanted to visit the holy grotto at Lourdes, said Fr Martin Noone. But JWT had decades of experience with the people on the ground in Lourdes; the hotel and transport providers; local guides; and the Accueil Notre Dame, which has many of the facilities of a modern hospital and is a place of welcome for sick people, close to the grotto.
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The travel agents closed its doors on Tuesday after 60 years in business
The Bishop of Elphin is hoping that people in the diocese will be able to take part on a pilgrimage to Lourdes next year.
Bishop Kevin Doran who is President of the United Irish Pilgrimages to Lourdes is expressing his regret that Joe Walsh Tours, which organised the Pilgrim tours Ltd is to cease trading.
He s thanking the company for its friendly and highly professional service to generations of Irish pilgrims.
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Bishop Doran says with no trip planned for this year due to Covid 19, he s hopeful that they will be able to resume pilgrimages to Lourdes in 2022.