Vol. 545 No. 3
155 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if funding and policy matters for the tourism industry come under the aegis of his Department; if he has ascertained whether adequate hotel and restaurant facilities are available to meet market requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30328/01]
My Department, as provided in its statement of strategy, has responsibility for formulation, development and evaluation of policy for the tourism sector as regards training, human resource policy, tourism marketing and promotion, tourism structures, tourism product development and North-South co-operation in tourism matters. Implementation of these policies and responsibility for day-to-day operational matters is a matter for the tourism agencies under the aegis of my Department – Bord Fáilte, CERT, Shannon Development and Tourism Ireland Ltd.
Exchequer funding for tourism is provided under subheads B1-B9 of Vote 35, Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation. Details of these sub-heads are published annually by the Department of Finance in the Book of Estimates. They have recently published the abridged version for 2002.
Over the period of the National Development Plan 2000-2006, some 444 million, £350 million, will be spent on tourism programmes. This NDP funding will be spent on three themes – tourism marketing, tourism training and tourism product – over four operational programmes of the national development plan. The productive sector operational programme provides for 190 million – £150 million – for the tourism marketing fund. Tourism Ireland Ltd. and Bord Fáilte are the implementing agencies for tourism marketing.
The employment and human resources operational programme provides for 127 million – £100 million – for tourism training. This operational programme has three tourism training measures – sectoral entry training – school leavers; sectoral entry training – unemployed persons and ongoing sectoral training – industry employees. CERT is the relevant implementing agency for tourism training.
