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Seanad Éireann debate -
Thursday, 10 Nov 2016

Vol. 248 No. 5

National Tourism Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2015 [Certified Money Bill]: Second Stage

Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, to the House. I remind the House that this is a certified money Bill.

The National Tourism Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2015 provides for an increase in the upper limit that applies to the overall capital funding that can be voted to the National Tourism Development Authority, which is known to us all as Fáilte Ireland, for the purposes of supporting the development of the tourism product. As this Bill has been certified as a money Bill, tight constitutional deadlines apply to the return of Seanad recommendations to the Dáil. I thank Senators for allowing all Stages to be taken today in Seanad Éireann, thereby facilitating the swift passage of this short but important Bill.

The National Tourism Development Authority Act 2003 provided for the dissolution of Bord Fáilte Éireann and CERT Limited and the establishment of the National Tourism Development Authority, Fáilte Ireland. Section 24(1) of the 2003 Act gives the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the power to "advance to the Authority out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas such sums as the Minister may determine". Section 24(2) of the Act limits the total amount of money that can be advanced to Fáilte Ireland by the Minister over a series of years for "capital expenditure on projects or enterprises". It is important to note that this limit refers only to the total cumulative cap on capital funding that may be advanced by the Minister to Fáilte Ireland in support of the development of the tourism product. It is an enabling provision rather than an allocation. It is important to note that it is not an allocation.

Specific Exchequer allocations to Fáilte Ireland continue to be made in the normal way through the annual Estimates and budgetary process. The limit on total capital funding was originally set at €65 million but was later increased to €150 million under the National Tourism Development Authority (Amendment) Act 2011.

As things stand, total capital investment in tourism by Fáilte Ireland from the Exchequer allocation has almost reached that limit. Once the spending limit has been reached, no further voted capital moneys can be advanced to Fáilte Ireland for tourism capital investment projects. Accordingly, it is necessary now to legislate to increase the limit.

The Bill takes into account the allocations under the Government's capital plan, Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021. The Bill proposes raising the limit to €300 million to cover anticipated allocations over the lifetime of the plan. To reflect changes in ministerial roles and responsibilities since the legislation was last amended, the Bill also clarifies that it is now with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, rather than the Minister for Finance, that the Minister may advance moneys to Fáilte Ireland.

Tourism is a growing industry and a key contributor to our overall economy. It creates jobs and generates earnings in communities throughout Ireland, especially in rural areas. The year 2015 was the fifth successive year of growth for Irish tourism. Central Statistics Office figures for overseas travel show a new record high of over 8.6 million visits to Ireland during the year. Expenditure in 2015 by overseas visitors, excluding carrier receipts, amounted to over €4.2 billion, an increase of over 18% on 2014. When combined with spending by domestic tourists, total tourism expenditure was worth over €5.7 billion to the Irish economy. The tourism and hospitality sectors now employ an estimated 220,000 people and provide a wide range of opportunities to access the labour market. Things are certainly moving in the right direction but this is no time to rest on our laurels. We need to capitalise on this positive momentum to drive further growth and maximise returns.

Continued capital investment in our tourism product is essential to maintain our competitive position. We must provide for continued investment in the further development of our tourism offering in line with visitor expectations to stand out in a crowded international marketplace. With this in mind, Fáilte Ireland is continuing to develop the signature experience brands, including the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland's Ancient East and Dublin: A Breath of Fresh Air. They have the necessary scale and impact to stand out internationally and give Ireland a strong base for promotion overseas. Fáilte Ireland is also considering how best to develop and progress a new proposition for the lakelands.

Capital allocations for tourism product development will provide for continued investment in these experienced brands through the development of attractions and other tourism infrastructure. In parallel, current expenditure on tourism will further enhance, animate and promote these key experienced brands by funding businesses, supports, training, festivals and other related programmes. The Government's capital programme sets out the framework for capital investment in the coming years. This will allow Departments and agencies to plan investment over the medium term and longer term. The programme provides for approximately €125 million for expenditure on tourism product development up to 2022, with investment rising significantly as time progresses.

The existing spending cap set out in legislation is insufficient to provide for the anticipated annual allocations over the life of the capital programme. Without this revised proposed legislation no further voted Exchequer moneys can be advanced to Fáilte Ireland for tourism and capital investment projects once the existing limit has been reached. Accordingly, I am bringing forward the Bill to make the necessary legislative changes. I commend the Bill to the House.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I commend the Minister of State on his work in the Department, which he is undertaking with a great degree of success, in fairness.

We support the Bill. As the Minister of State has said, it is an enabling provision. We have to make provision for additional funding if and when it becomes necessary. We have no problem with that.

I do not have a great deal to say today. Tourism is one of our big success stories and we have to mind it, nourish it and try to keep it going in the right direction. The figures are good. All sectors seem to be up. We had a useful exchange yesterday at our committee meeting with the leaders of the tourism industry. Whereas we are all cautious and concerned about certain developments, there is a belief that Irish tourism is in a strong position. We should be able to withstand the threats and dangers that are coming, especially Brexit, if we all work together.

We have many things going for us in tourism, not least, our natural environment, scenery, culture, history, dance and music. More important, as we often say, the greatest single tourist attraction in Ireland is the people. The people are friendly and welcoming. We want to see people coming to our shores. Local people have a great and abiding interest in promoting their areas and niche tourism. That is not something anyone can buy.

The Minister of State will be aware of a product in his constituency at Foynes. He will be aware of the Foynes Flying Board and Maritime Museum, which operates under the leadership of Margaret O'Shaughnessy and her team. I am simply highlighting this venture because it is one with which the Minister of State and I are familiar. It has grown from a small idea. Every few years the operation expands and those involved come up with a new element. If that could be replicated throughout the country, then I have no fears for the tourism industry.

Recently, we launched the Kerry tourism strategy in Listowel. There was a great attendance at the launch. It was great to see all the players and involved parties, including hoteliers, restaurateurs and those in tourism transport. The document was brought out under the aegis of the Kerry County Council chief executive, Moira Murrell, and her team. It would make a good template for local authority tourism input throughout the country. I am not suggesting Kerry is better than anywhere else but at the same time we have a big stake in tourism and it is important for us. I believe there are counties in the north, south, east and west that have beautiful amenities but they have not been properly marketed. Anyone who has done a tour of Ireland - as we all did during the Seanad elections - will know that there is extraordinary beauty in most parts of Ireland. However, according to the figures, the north west amounts to only 5% of the entire tourism take. This area includes beautiful counties like Donegal and Leitrim. It is surprising that we cannot do better here. Corresponding figures include 12% from the west, 17% from the south west and over 40% from our great capital city of Dublin, naturally. There is plenty of room for improvement as, I am sure, the Minister of State will agree.

There is no doubt that the biggest threat we are facing around the corner is Brexit. Yesterday, the head of Fáilte Ireland indicated that it is already impacting negatively on our tourism base. Given the devaluation in sterling, it is going to be rather expensive for United Kingdom and Northern Ireland tourists to spend as much in Ireland as they have done heretofore. Almost 40% of our total tourism business comes from the UK and the North, a sizeable segment. The English are good tourists. They come all year round, not only in high season. They come for fishing and shooting. They come off the main shoulder season. They are good spenders. This is something on which we will have to work hard.

I will highlight one of my great bugbears, although I know it is not particularly relevant to what we are talking about. Anyway, it relates to the overpricing of hotel accommodation in our capital city. This is becoming a crisis. Any time a big rock star comes or a big event is scheduled - Rod Stewart is coming next weekend - people find that they have to stay in hotels in Portlaoise and Wicklow. They cannot get accommodation in the city. We are lucky to have Airbnb to take up the slack. We also have to be aware that capital investment in tourism is slipping. We are down 17% on the grants for Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland since 2012.

I will make a final comment on the Asian market. I imagine the Minister of State and those in his Department are well aware that this is a major growth area and presents a great opportunity for us. We are going to have to study this market. The head of the restaurant association said lately that we know more about the 6.5 million cows in Ireland than we do about the 6.5 million tourists who come here. That is pretty true. As far as the Asian market is concerned, there is great potential.

Tourists from Asia stay for longer periods, spend more and travel more. We welcome that and will have to work on it.

I have referred to skills shortages in a number of debates here before. We have a difficulty training chefs especially. I will ask the Minister of State another time to take a serious look at how we will train our chefs and kitchen staff generally and how we will reinvigorate CERT and many other such ideas. However, today is the day to give the Minister of State the freedom to draw down more money if it is needed, and I am happy to support that.

Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith anseo linn inniu. The Minister of State made a very compelling case in his contribution as to why he wants this Bill to pass and why we would want to invest further in our tourism offer. As Senator Ned O'Sullivan outlined very eloquently, Ireland overall has a fantastic, world-class tourism offer, the economic benefits of which can be, should be and need to be tangibly felt. When we approach this issue, particularly around capital investment and the offer we spread across the country, we need to think strategically and think how best we can make our offer go beyond Kerry, with the greatest respect to that county, and be felt beyond the city of Dublin. We need to think how the merits and investment which, justifiably and necessarily, Government makes in our tourism offer reap some rewards for communities, small business-owners, small restaurateurs, hoteliers, and publicans, etc. I am inclined to support anything that seeks to do that.

I sat previously on the board of Visit Belfast, the tourism body responsible for tourism in Ireland's second city, and I understand the significant need to support tourism initiatives. Ireland has pioneered very well the kinds of initiatives about which Deputy Ned O'Sullivan talked. In my city there is a huge interest in political tourism, for example. It is probably one of the biggest and fastest-growing sectors in the city of Belfast. When I visited Derry city recently, Visit Derry, the relevant organisation there, was very keen and anxious to work with colleagues in Donegal to promote the broader north-west region referred to as well. I approach this in the context of being truly national when we come to these strategies and seeking to bolster organisations such as Tourism Ireland, which has responsibility for promoting, highlighting and working on behalf of the capital investment we make on a global stage. Anything we can do to bolster that offer or benefit the tourism infrastructure, whether hotel beds or greater connectivity within and greater links to the island of Ireland, is to be welcomed and encouraged. That is why I have no doubt that the Minister of State will have our support in the Seanad in seeking to make that additional investment.

I will make a number of quick points before I finish. Senator Ned O'Sullivan is right to touch on Brexit. It has implications both North and South because the North relies on visitors from the South in order to support its economy as well. As an island, we have a responsibility, because of the implications of Brexit, to ensure that this momentum North and South and between both islands, whether day trips or short weekend breaks, continues and is bolstered, thought about and considered in the time ahead. This is another indication of how the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union impacts right across every facet of our lives. It is not just reserved to the expected or more commonly spoken about issues. Brexit has major implications for the tourism offer right across the island. It would be good to hear, whether from the Minister of State, his colleagues or Tourism Ireland, specifically how best they wish to and practically can work to offset some of the negative implications of Brexit and what they will do in the immediate time ahead.

I touched very briefly on the need for infrastructure. Belfast City Council, for example, which has a memorandum of understanding with Dublin City Council on issues such as tourism, recently passed a motion seeking to develop the high-speed rail link between both cities. That would be mutually beneficial to communities right across the country. When we come to these issues, given the very eloquent case the Minister of State made and the very understandable case for investment in our tourism offer, I reiterate that it is fantastic when one walks the streets of this city to see the place absolutely overrun with tourists. That is very good and encouraging, particularly given the global economic climate in which we have found ourselves. However, I stress the point, with which I am sure the Minister of State will agree, that any investment, as I said at the beginning of my contribution, must be matched by the political will and every other kind of will to see that communities across the length and breadth of this island benefit.

I welcome the Minister of State and welcome this Bill, which aims to increase the cumulative total of funding for spending and capital tourism projects. As the Minister of State rightly pointed out, it is not an allocation but it will allow allocations down the line. It is important to continue to support tourism projects and investments. As has been pointed out already, we saw the updated figures for 2016 at a meeting of the Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport yesterday. Brexit is a threat and a worry, but it is great to see that it has not affected the numbers travelling from the United Kingdom.

While we need to take account of Brexit and be aware of it, we do not need to talk ourselves into a crisis about it. Senator Ó Donnghaile said that it has not yet affected the figures. People are making decisions now about where they will go in 2017, and we need to be on the ball in that regard.

The great thing about tourism is that every region has benefited from it in terms of jobs and spending in the economy. Spending by tourists in regional Ireland is even more beneficial because the regions lack spending in other areas. That must be concentrated on as well. Reference was made as well to the fact that funding to support tourism suffered in the financial crisis like everything else. It is good that we are discussing the lifting of a cap rather than the imposition of a cut, but it is important to note that tourism has been the success story of the recession and the financial crisis in Ireland. It shows what happens when all bodies can get together, whether the agencies, the industry itself, the Irish Hotels Federation, the Restaurants Association of Ireland and so on, along with the Government. While funding was cut, incentives and supports were put in place by way of the 9% VAT rate, the elimination of the travel tax and so on.

It was pointed out to us yesterday that there are challenges ahead, and everyone sees them. Sterling has dropped by 20% in the last number of months, and we saw a wobble on the markets with the election in the United States. It is important that such matters be met and whatever supports necessary can be put in place. Maybe the one small weakness concerns Dublin, the capital city. If we go abroad, we think of capital cities, and that is fine, but there are some wonderful resources in tourism. The biggest resources in tourism are in the regions, whether scenery, activities, holidays or whatever. The Minister of State wears his sporting cap here as well. Activity holidays and so on are important. There is a lack of hotel beds. While the solution to that in Dublin is the building and opening of new hotels, it is important that there be another solution, that is, that we get people directly into the regions. I know Shannon Airport and the surrounding area is close to the Minister of State's heart. Knock Airport is close to mine. There are also airports in Cork and Belfast. Tourism marketing has been wonderful in the past five years. I refer to the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland's Ancient East. However, we should educate tourists that there is brilliant value for money in the rural and regional areas, despite hotel rooms in Dublin sometimes being massively overpriced in many respects, with the Rod Stewart concert and sporting events and so on.

If there is one positive outcome from the challenges, it is that there are considerable opportunities arising from them. For the investment that has been made in tourism, there are multiples of it that come back into the economy. I very much welcome this Bill.

I welcome the increase in funding for tourism. It is good that all of my colleagues here in the Seanad today are welcoming this Bill. The Minister of State says tourism is a growing sector and a key contributor to the overall economy, both of which it is. It creates jobs and generates earnings in communities throughout Ireland, particularly in rural areas.

I am from the south-east region, from Tramore, County Waterford, and unfortunately we are not seeing the growth or recovery in jobs in the south-east region like we are seeing in other areas of Ireland. Particularly in terms of tourism, it would be fitting for the Government to look at where recovery has not been felt on the ground in some rural areas and when distributing capital funding, that it specifically target the weak economic areas, such as Waterford and the rest of the south-east region, and bolster these areas.

The Wild Atlantic Way is a magnificent offering. I believe Ireland, as a tourism product, is next to none. I have travelled the length and breadth of the globe through 30 years and Ireland has the beautiful green rural regions that are excellent for tourism but it would be wonderful if capital investment went to areas, such as the south east, that really need an input, particularly with regard to Ireland's Ancient East. The Wild Atlantic Way has received a significant contribution over the past years and we are seeing the success. I would like to see such capital funding coming into areas that really need this support at present.

In Waterford, we have the Waterford Greenway. It is a cycling and walking route through areas of Waterford, looking at the beautiful Comeragh Mountains and looking out at the Atlantic and the Celtic Sea region. I would like to see sustainable ecotourism developed more in the south east because we have the surfing beaches and areas that without doubt need the capital funding that will bring more jobs into the region.

It is a great day for Ireland that there is more funding coming into tourism. I ask that the Minister of State have regard to the south east and that a good proportion of the funding would go to rural areas that really need it, such as the Waterford area that has not seen the recovery in job creation that other areas have seen.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and compliment him for his grasp of the brief that he has achieved in the past few months. When one looks at the sport and tourism brief, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan really has a good grasp of it, and it is a credit to him.

This legislation will be important because it lifts the cap on spending. It is probably the first step in ensuring that we can sustain what is a good tourism sector at present. It is about building on the successes of the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland's Ancient East, which have been one of our major success stories in the past few years. That is basically down to the Government commitment. It is basically down to the 9% VAT rate. It is about how we sold the product itself - some Senators mentioned that the product is the people - and we have managed to do that quite effectively. It is about building on that.

The figure the Minister of State mentioned of 8.6 million visitors in the past year is phenomenal, and that is a credit to the policies. Hopefully, the investment that is being proposed here today will strengthen the case so that we can deal with the Brexit issue and deal with the issues around our neighbours and where they are going. That is probably one of the biggest issues out there. The confidence factor in the market, with Brexit and with UK tourists, is an issue that will haunt us for the next few months, if not years.

One of the key issues of the tourism strategy has to be tourist offices. We have a unique network of 32 tourist offices the length and breadth of this country. When we are looking at investing in the infrastructure on the ground, the tourist offices need to be supported. There have been unfortunate cuts in this regard. For instance, Kinsale has only 1.5 whole-time equivalent staff and it would be the sixth busiest tourist office in Ireland. It is open only six days a week. When one considers what tourism is to a town like Kinsale, an investment in staff members in that infrastructure is key because, as some Senators stated earlier, the people are what we are selling. When tourists meet the person at the coalface, he or she has the ability to engage and tell them where to go and ensure that their experience in Ireland is as good as it can be.

This is an important investment. The Minister of State has done a courageous job in the past few months. I commend what he has done and I hope in the investment in the future that he might be able to tie in the tourist offices and the staffing levels there because we need to sell our people who work at the coalface if we possibly can.

I will try to respond to each of the Senators who have shown up and, in fairness, put a bit of thought into their contributions, and I thank them for it.

Starting off with my near neighbour, I agree entirely with Senator Ned O'Sullivan regarding the initiatives that have been taken in Kerry. I was due to launch the Kerry tourism strategy but, unfortunately, on the same day the late Anthony Foley was being laid to rest and, as Minister for sport, I had to attend the funeral.

A number of Senators have raised the issue regarding local authorities in their local areas. I am meeting the County and City Management Association later on. From the day that I was appointed as Minister of State, I have felt strongly about this. The last speaker, Senator Lombard, alluded to it as well in relation to tourist offices. Local authorities have a much greater role and I will be expecting a much greater role from them. I will be communicating to them today that I expect over the next number of months that every local authority in the country will develop a tourism strategy. In that regard, I need city and county managers, the CEOs, to be proactive rather than reactive. It is a requirement under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 that tourism is no longer to be viewed as something that a local authority might do. Tourism is now viewed as something that one must do as a local authority.

I am delighted that the Kerry CEO is as proactive as she is - I have met her and many other CEOs - but there are some who are not proactive. The way I will view it will be very simple. CEOs of local authorities and local authority members have to rise to the mark in their contribution from tourism. Over the next number of months I will be bringing all the CEOs together. We will launch every one of the local authority tourism strategies. These strategies will not be dust-gatherers because I will expect my officials from the Department who are here today from Killarney to assess the implementation of these strategies and seek updates from local authorities on a regular basis.

Senator Lombard mentioned an issue that is close to my own heart to do with tourist offices. There is a local authority office at almost every crossroads in the country now. Every large or medium-sized town has a local authority office. There is nothing stopping local authorities grasping the Local Government Reform Act 2014 and saying they will fill the vacuum here, and some local authorities are doing that. Our local authority offices need to be more than merely a place where people who require local authority services go. They are the front of house in terms of Ireland's image for the visitor coming into a provincial or small town. Local authorities will have to start looking at their network of offices to see what facilities and services they can make available in them.

Senators Ned O'Sullivan and O'Mahony mentioned the need for hotel rooms in Dublin, and I agree entirely. I met the Irish Hotels Federation. We had all of the financial institutions in at a meeting recently.

We are due to meet Dublin City Council and we will also meet in the coming weeks with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government with a view to seeing whether there are specific issues that are blocking the pipeline in terms of the delivery of badly needed hotel rooms. It is an issue I am very conscious of. I come from a rural location and I see at first hand the issues that exist.

Several Senators mentioned the skills shortage. When I was appointed as Minister of State, education and training boards were given the freedom and the initiative to look at the skills deficit in their own area. I have to compliment the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, which has established an initiative to look at deficits in training in its own area, specifically the skills shortage in the tourism and hospitality industry. I would view this as best practice. What I have decided to do, with my Department, is to ask that other education and training boards be brought before the tourism leadership group, which I chair, and that we would share information as best practice. We do not need to go off establishing another quango or reinventing the wheel. If chefs and tourism and hospitality staff can be trained in the ETB in Roxborough in Limerick, it can be done everywhere and we should be able to meet the skills deficit. There is a requirement under the legislation that ETBs would do that and I will be seeking to make sure under the Action Plan for Jobs and the Regional Action Plan for Jobs that this is done.

Senator Ó Donnghaile mentioned the all-island aspect of this issue. I could not agree more. I was in attendance at the World Travel Market in London with Tourism Ireland during the week. To me, selling Ballymena is every bit as important as selling Bandon and I do not differentiate between them. Ten million people visited the island of Ireland last year. What we want to do is make sure we contribute to employment growth. Some 8.6 million visited south of the Border and, in fairness, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Fáilte Ireland do a very good job within their remit under the umbrella body, Tourism Ireland. I had a very good meeting with the chair of Tourism Ireland, Brian Ambrose, yesterday in Belfast when I was there for the launch of the women's rugby world cup. As Senator O'Mahony said, sports tourism is part of my brief, and that is why I am anxious and hopeful we get the rugby world cup in 2023. Every time somebody comes up from Mayo or Kerry to an all-Ireland final, or from Limerick, the odd time they are here, that is domestic tourism. Those sporting occasions, such as on Saturday, when Ireland play Canada - we hope they have a victory like they had in Chicago - are domestic tourism. Again, the two things go hand in hand.

The Senator also mentioned Brexit. I view the three greatest threats to the Irish tourism industry as being Brexit, political instability and uncompetitiveness. Unfortunately, we do not have a role in terms of putting a floor under the value of sterling as that is governed by forces outside our control. The offering in the Lake District in England, in Wales and in Scotland is going to be far more inviting to the British tourist than it was heretofore. We have a challenge, which is competitiveness. As we can do nothing to influence the value of sterling, we need to make sure we have competitive prices, that people are well looked after and that we send them home looking forward to coming back again and, more important, telling their friends and family we want them back again.

We need a stable political environment in which to do that. For example, some in this House opposed the 9% VAT rate in a recent budget proposal which would have decimated rural and provincial hotels, restaurants and tourism attractions. I could not stand such over a situation. Dublin is in a very strong position but Donegal, where I was on holidays, and Waterford, which I also visited during the summer, are not. I agree with Senator Grace O'Sullivan that Waterford has a great offering. In addition, there is nothing stopping Cork County Council, in regard to the coast from Kinsale to the county border close to Youghal, agreeing with Waterford County Council, in regard to the coast from there to Dunmore East, and then with Wexford County Council, to do something like what is being done on the Shannon Estuary between Limerick and Clare.

To go back to my original point, we need our local authorities to be far more imaginative. There is a fantastic asset between Dungarvan and Waterford city, the greenway, which is being funded by my Department. I want to see more of that. However, I have pulled up the handbrake in regard to greenways recently because I want to see a national strategy developed whereby we would have a national map of Ireland and greenways would not start in the middle of nowhere and end in the middle of nowhere. Greenways should start in a location where people can get off a bus and take a bike for a cycle, then get back on a bus or train. With regard to Senator Ned O'Sullivan's home place, we are very anxious to have the great southern trail cross what is almost the Rio Grande into north Kerry and then take it on to Listowel. I hope that can happen, but in order for it to happen, we need local authorities to do the Part 8 work, undertake the consultations, talk to landowners and agree a platform on the way forward. I hope to do that over the next number of months. We will launch a public consultation shortly in regard to the development of greenways. It is one of the issues I feel very strongly about.

Senator O'Mahony referred to Knock Airport, which is rightly close to his heart. Shannon Airport and Kerry Airport are close to my heart and Cork Airport has a very important role, as do the seaports of Rosslare Harbour and Cork. We want to maximise the number of people who come into Ireland at provincial locations. One of the ways we can do that is by encouraging the tour operators, particularly coach and bus operators, to start looking at locations other than Dublin. We cannot force them not to come to Dublin but, if they want to come to the capital city, as Senator O'Mahony rightly said, we at least need to try to get them out into the regions as quickly as possible. To do that, however, a visitor attraction is needed. That is why we have brought forward this Bill and we have lifted the cap on spending up to €300 million.

We have been criticised for not doing enough but there is currently a grant scheme available of €125 million and we are particularly encouraging local authorities and State agencies to apply. Frankly, when a local authority sends in an application for a grant to do something in their local area and it does not include a feasibility study, it is very difficult to give grant-aid due to the spending rules that have to be adhered to. Leader companies will also have a role and they have to rise to the mark. The Department and Fáilte Ireland cannot do everything. What we are doing is putting in place a structure that will empower people at local level to look at the success of the Wild Atlantic Way and the success that Ireland's Ancient East will be, and ask how their community can grab onto that. This is why, in my own area, we have developed a driving route that will start in Loop Head and finish in Foynes, as Senator Ned O'Sullivan said.

This is enabling legislation. At some stage in the future, I would like to come back to the House for a general discussion with Senators on how we can develop this product. While there are constraints, who would have thought, when this country was banjaxed in 2008, that the two industries we would have turned to in order to drag us out of the mire, agriculture and tourism, would have delivered the return they have? Tourism has come up to the plate. I want to take this opportunity to thank the people working in the tourism and hospitality sector, my Department officials in Killarney and Dublin, the staff of Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. They do a great job and we work collectively but there is a responsibility that I will now shove over on top of local authorities. They are going to have to do more and I would expect they will do more. I ask the Members of Seanad Éireann to support me in that. I know how close they are to the councillors around the country. I would encourage Senator Ned O'Sullivan in the discussions he has on his grand tour of Ireland, although I hope he does not have to embark on it soon.

I am in no hurry.

In all seriousness, when Members come in contact with their councillors, I ask that they put this item on the agenda in their local authorities. It has the potential to deliver jobs in every part of the country, as Senator Grace O'Sullivan said. We have an obligation to try to do that. There is a challenge in doing that but we are up for that challenge, as is the Department. I welcome the contribution of the Senators.

Question put and agreed to.

When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Agreed to take remaining Stages today.
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