As this is the first opportunity I have had to speak in the new Seanad Éireann, I want to congratulate the Cathaoirleach on being elected by your fellow Senators as Chairman of the Seanad. I want to congratulate the Senators who were successful in the difficult Seanad election, both those who are Members of former Seanaid and those who are new to this Seanad. My visits to the Seanad previously have been both enlightening and stimulating and I expect that will be my experience again.
This Bill provides for increasing the statutory limits on the total amount of grant-in-aid which may be paid out by Bord Fáilte for development purposes. The current statutory limit on grant expenditure for amenity development will be reached before the end of this year while the limit on Exchequer grant assistance for the development of tourism accommodation will be reached sometime in 1988. Consequently, it is necessary to increase the amenity limit immediately to permit Bord Fáilte to make full use of its capital allocations for 1987. It is also appropriate at this stage to increase the accommodation limit.
The statutory limits were last raised to £30 million and £14 million respectively by the Tourist Traffic Act, 1983. The increases of £6 million and £4 million on accommodation and amenity limits respectivley now being proposed in section 2 of this Bill could, under present policies, be expected to cover grant payments until at least 1990.
As I explained to the Dáil, this does not imply continuation of existing grant schemes or the introduction of new schemes in the foreseeable future. The existing schemes are subject to review each year during the annual Estimates exercise and their continuance will be subject to rigorous appraisal and will also require approval by the House.
Policy in relation to capital grant aid for tourism is based on the belief that selective and targeted aid acts as an incentive to the private sector to invest in new projects and to up-grade and develop existing tourist facilities.
These grants are only one of a range of incentives designed to stimulate investment in facilities for tourists, including the availability of concessionary finance from the Industrial Credit Corporation for working capital and long term investment requirements for which the Exchequer covers the exchange risk; investment capital from the National Development Corporation; and the recent extension of the business expansion scheme to export tourism.
Capital grant aid which is the particular subject of the current Bill has since its introduction stimulated investment in excess of £90 million in the case of accommodation developments and £40 million in the case of amenity developments. It is arguable that much of this investment would not have occurred without the incentive of grant aid. Considerable job creation has resulted over the years from this investment. For example, in 1986 it is estimated that investment aid by Bord Fáilte generated in the region of 950 jobs in the construction industry alone.
In their short term in office this Government have by their decisive action in their crash programme for tourism announced on 3 May last demonstrated their commitment to develop the potential for growth in the tourism sector. This programme was designed to achieve a substantial increase in tourist numbers in 1987 and subsequent years with consequential spin-offs for employment and wealth creation through a concerted national effort by everybody involved in tourism. The main elements of the programme were a series of major innovative measures on access transport including a £57 midweek special air fare from London to Dublin with an equivalent £67 fare to Cork and Shannon, special continental air fares, exempli gratia a Brussels-Dublin fare of £180, which was a reduction of 16 per cent, £182 from Amsterdam to Dublin, a special Greensaver fare of $399 from the United States of America, special promotional fares by the sea carriers, a new cheap fuel promotional scheme for UK motorists visiting Ireland under which vouchers worth £10 are given to the first 20,000 visitors who show evidence of a confirmed booking to Ireland from June to September, price reductions in hotel accommodation and meal prices, more aggressive and targeted marketing in foreign markets and a diversion of extra resources into tourism.
In addition, we announced that there would be a concerted drive to increase investment in specialised activities due to the business expansion scheme proposals announced in the budget and greater coordination of public sector activities in the tourism field.
We followed up this initiative by having intensive consultations with all sectors of the industry to see what contributions they would make to the drive for growth in tourism in 1987 and subsequent years. The speedy response of the industry was magnificent as shown by the following initiatives which I announced to the Dáil on 14 May 1987: The Irish Caravan Council recommended that all their members offer a 10 per cent reduction on direct overseas bookings for mobile homes caravans and that pre-booked pitches and tents be given four nights for the price of three; the Irish Boat Rental Association offered a 5 per cent discount on all direct overseas bookings and a 10 per cent discount to walk-in overseas visitors, that is overseas visitors who come into any boat hire base in Ireland; the Restaurant Association of Ireland launched a new initiative on the tourist menu scheme with a view to making it more widely available throughout the whole of the country. They also launched a third tier at £12 and asked all their members to participate in this for the present tourist season; SFADCo are offering 15 per cent off any booking for banquets in two of their castles; the Car Rental Council of Ireland recommend that with effect from 1 June 1987 their members offer 10 per cent off their national tariff rate for hirings of seven days' duration or more; the Self-Catering Association offered a 10 per cent discount off all overseas consumer bookings; CIE decided that rail/road unlimited rambler tickers sold in the US would be reduced by 25 per cent and they extended their validity to 30 days. The new cost is US $100. They also undertook a special printing and distribution of 250,000 brochures for US, Britain and the Continent, giving up-dated promotional information.
At this point, I would like to express my sincere thanks to these organisations for the initiatives they have taken to support the Government's drive for tourism growth in 1987. Individually and collectively they responded magnificently to this attempt, seeing it for what it was, an attempt to stimulate the industry and to arouse interest in our markets abroad.
Trends to date show that growth in the industry has picked up considerably. Bord Fáilte statistics for the first five months show an overall increase in visitor numbers of over 16 per cent. This includes increases of 17 per cent from Britain, 12 per cent from North America and 19 per cent from Europe. Indeed, the figures for France show an increase of almost 46 per cent and for Holland 31 per cent. We are attempting to target the European markets of France, the Netherlands and West Germany particularly, because the numbers of tourists who avail of holidays abroad in those countries are very high. Indeed, we have had a falling graph particularly with regard to West Germany for some time.
Preliminary indications for June show that this momentum has been maintained as evidenced by arrivals data for our three main airports. In June 1987 passenger numbers at Dublin were up by over 30,000 or almost 22 per cent, in Shannon by over 5,000 or 12½ per cent and in Cork by 4,000 or almost 25 per cent. Arrivals by sea in the same month were only marginally down on their 1987 level.
I would like to make a comment with regard to those statistics. Some people say we are comparing 1987 with 1986 at a time when certain factors militated against the tourist industry here. I want to point out that these statistics are for the early months of this years, 1987, and they correspond to a period last year before Chernobyl, before the United States President told its citizens to stay at home and before the factors that fought against a successful tourist year in 1986 came into play.
I must emphasise that the Government are not concentrating solely on the overseas market. As an earnest of our commitment to the domestic market an extra £75,000 was allocated to Bord Fáilte for promotion in the home market this year. I an confident that with these extra resources and some fine weather the important domestic market will also show growth this year. In relation to Northern Ireland, prospects for the remainder of the season are optimistic with one quarter of hoteliers anticipating some increase in their Northern Ireland business.
There is, I believe, growing confidence within the industry itself. It is important that this confidence manifests itself in a willingness to reinvest in and develop all aspects of the Irish tourism product. The series of incentives which I have already outlined ranging from attractive loan schemes to easier access to venture capital through the BES as well as grant-aid, are provided in the belief and expectation that the industry will respond positively, and play their part in putting growth back into tourism. The Government for their part will do all in their power to provide a regulatory framework which will both stimulate and facilitate growth in this crucial sector.
But expansion, increased profits and additional employment can only come about from the efforts of those businesses directly involved in the industry itself. It is up to them to seek out viable projects, identify the markets which offer potential for growth and take advantage of all the opportunities available — many of which have been made more attractive by a series of incentives provided at no small cost by the Exchequer.
In considering this Bill Dáil Deputies referred time and time again to the need for a more specific and targeted approach in marketing Ireland as a holiday destination. I am in complete agreement with those sentiments. In these competitive days it is vital for Ireland to be seen as more than just a green, beautiful and unspoilt destination, although it is important to try to keep it green, beautiful and unspoilt and we are not absolutely dedicated to that in all areas of the country as yet. These worthy attributes, which are rarities nowadays, are not sufficient in themselves to capture a large segment of the world tourist market. We must also appeal as a place which offers the potential visitor a wide range of things to do. The modern tourist expects and, indeed, demands activities and entertainment. We in Ireland have a lot to offer to those looking for satisfying activity-related holidays — namely, angling, water sports, cycling, hiking, equestrian pursuits, walking and golf to mention but a few.
Considerable work has been done with walkways. I had the privilege of opening a walkway in my own county, in the Cuilcagh Mountains, earlier in the summer and it links up with a walkway in the Six Counties. They join at the BelcooBlacklion Border area. There is a Táinway, a Wicklow-way and a Kerry-way and I look forward to a time when there possibly could be a competition organised walkways for encircling the whole country, a kind of tour d'Irlande which many people would be interested in. I have already made contact with the development officer in County Fermanagh who would be anxious to link up the walkways. We have had co-operation with the tourist people in the Six Counties for some time. We hope to develop and strengthen it because, apart from the fact that it is the best province of the four provinces, there is great potential in that development.
Indeed, demand for this type of specialist holiday constitutes one of the fastest growing segments of the international tourist market. With our wealth of natural resources, unpolluted environment and temperate climate, we have a strong competitive advantage to exploit. This, however, is not in itself sufficient to attract additional visitors to Ireland. We must also pay increased attention to protecting and developing the basic facilities which nature has endowed us with and use our marketing skills to build good quality attractive holiday programmes around them.
The specialist holiday market is one which, it must be admitted, has to a considerable degree been under-exploited by the Irish tourist industry. It offers tremendous scope for generating increased tourist traffic and revenue, especially off-peak, from key foreign markets like Britain, France and Germany. This is one of the major areas into which the Government will be encouraging investment and channelling grantaid.
Returning to the Bill now before the House, I should explain that the main elements are contained in section 2. Section 2 (1) deals with the limits on grant-aid to holiday accommodation. Grant assistance of over £5 million has been provided by the Government, through Bord Fáilte, for the development of holiday accommodation since the limit was last raised in 1983. This grant expenditure has had a positive effect in the upgrading and expansion of our accommodation stock. Specific grants have been available at various stages for the hotel and guesthouse sector, the caravan and camping sectors, town and country homes, farmhouses and also for the expansion of the youth hostel network.
Accommodation schemes in operation at the moment are for caravan and camping and for the supplementary holiday accommodation sectors which cover town and country homes and farmhouses. There is a special need in these areas to continue to improve standards and upgrade facilities. They represent a very important element of the accommodation sector and are particularly well suited for growth, in line with the trend towards more outdoor activity type holidays. The feedback from tourists who have used the facilities of farmhouses and the type of accommodation being talked about now has been more than encouraging. In fact, it is regarded as some of the best value in Europe in tourist terms.
The scope of the supplementary holiday accommodation scheme was extended earlier this year, and now applies nationwide. Previously the scheme excluded County Dublin and premises within a seven mile radius of Cork city and three mile radius of towns of over 3,000 population. However, the widening gap between standards of similar accommodation in urban areas and in rural areas in recent years justified this extension.
By the end of this year Bord Fáilte will have paid out almost £29.6 million in grant-aid for accommodation since first introduced by the Tourist Traffic Act of 1959. This leaves less than £0.4 million remaining before the statutory limit of £30 million is reached. I therefore propose that the statutory limit be raised now from £30 million to £36 million. This will be adequate to cover existing accommodation schemes until 1990, at the earliest, as well as allowing some leeway for their extension or the possible introduction of new schemes should the Government and the Oireachtas decide this is warranted.
Section 2 (2) deals with grant expenditure for the development of tourism-related facilities and amenities. The existing statutory limit on grants of this nature is £14 million and expenditure up to the end of 1986 amounted to almost £13 million. The 1987 allocation for this type of grant expenditure is just £1.2 million, bringing aggregrate expenditure on amenity development by the end of this year to over £14 million. The current statutory limit of £14 million must, therefore, be increased now to ensure completion of this year's amenity development programme.
Since 1983 the Government, through Bord Fáilte, have provided almost £4 million in grant assistance for the development of tourism amenities and facilities in the non-accommodation area. This expenditure has stimulated the development of a wide variety of facilities including angling, inland waterway development projects, heritage centres an the up-grading and extension of the local tourism information network. Other areas of major grant expenditure include water sports facilities, equestrian centres, historical and cultural sites, parks and great houses and gardens.
If we are to compete effectively for an increased share of the growing world tourist market our amenities and facilities must be of the highest standard and comparable to those available elsewhere. However, we need to continue to spend available money wisely so as to achieve a real return in terms of increasing tourism numbers and revenue. It is, therefore, paramount that the funding available to Bord Fáilte be used in so far as it is practical to further and complement the board's primary role — the promotion and marketing of Ireland as a tourist destination.
Assistance provided for many projects in the past may have enhanced general tourism amenities in particular areas, but from the point of view of the generation of additional tourism traffic the effect has been negligible. It is my intention that future assistance under this scheme be channelled towards projects which enhance and complement the existing tourism product and which offer a clearly identifiable return in the form of additional tourism revenue. Bord Fáilte will continue, of course, to maintain considerable discretion in the day to day allocation of these grants.
As I have said earlier, the statutory limit covering this particular area will be reached during the current year and I am accordingly proposing that the limit be increased from £14 million to £18 million.
Tá súil agam go nglacfaidh Seanad Éireann leis an mBille seo agus leis an dearcadh atá agamsa gur tionscal antábhachtach ar fad tionscal na turasóireachta. Tá mé réidh chun éisteacht leis na moltaí — tá a fhios agam go dtiocfaidh siad — ó Bhaill an tSeanaid agus tá súil agam go mbeidh Bille againn a bheas chun sochair na turasóireachta agus na tíre.
