A taskforce set up to drive the recovery of the Irish tourism industry post-coronavirus has called for staggered school holidays in a bid to encourage families to take breaks in hotels.

The proposal is included in the Tourism Recovery Plan 2020-2023 which was published on Tuesday.

Ruth Andrews, chairwoman of the taskforce, on Wednesday said the staggered holidays proposal was one of the group’s medium-term measures.

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"We're all aware we're going to be very dependent on our domestic holiday market, we would look not only to depend on it during the Covid environment, but in the longer term there's real potential to increase our staycation market and the domestic market here," she told RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland programme.

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"One of the things that we've looked at is where, in other countries, they have changed the school holidays, particularly around periods of mid term for instance, where you can spread the school holidays across regions, which means you're extending the capacity across peak periods and, as they've done in the UK and across Europe, this is very positively impacted on both the sector's occupancy and pricing."

The proposal is to look at changing mid term breaks to spread them over a longer period, said Ms Andrews.

“It’s going to be difficult for the hospitality sector to function out of doors during the winter, we all know living with Covid is going to go beyond the winter period and we’re looking into the first six months of next year so we need those businesses to be ready and to have adapted so that they can actually move and work in an environment whereby we’re living with Covid, but also being able to run our businesses.”

The task force made a number of recommendations in the recovery plan, aimed at ensuring the survival of tourism businesses and jobs, including:

• Business continuity grants and additional operational supports for enterprises
• Professional development supports for workers in the sector
• Liquidity measures to support vulnerable but viable businesses
• Facilitating the resumption of inbound international tourism
• Increasing competitiveness through a VAT reduction and actions to increase the cost and supply of insurance
• Increased domestic and overseas marketing expenditure.