Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 March 2012
7Deputy Patrick O’Donovan asked the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport if he will extend the programme in which public buildings were lit in green in various different cities around the world, to those public buildings owned by the State; and if he will consider a grants initiative to local authorities and other State agencies to join in the programme for St Patrick’s day 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16863/12]
View answerThe Deputy has asked whether I will extend the programme of turning international buildings and landmarks green to public buildings in this State. St. Patrick's Day traditionally marks the start of the tourism season. Tourism Ireland's greening initiative had many famous additions this year. It signalled the start of a major push to increase visitor numbers from overseas by capturing public and media attention in key source markets. Over 30 of the world's most iconic landmarks across six continents went green to mark St. Patrick's Day. The London Eye, Burj Al Arab in Dubai, Table Mountain in South Africa, the Empire State Building in New York, the Sky Tower in Auckland and, for the first time ever, Niagara Falls and the Alexanderplatz television tower in Berlin are just some of the iconic buildings and attractions around the world which were part of this year's greening initiative, which marked St. Patrick's Day and kicked off the first half of Tourism Ireland's major promotional drive to develop overseas tourism. The initiative helped to capture media and public attention in markets across the world and put Ireland in the publicity spotlight as an attractive holiday destination. The message is that there has never been a better time to visit Ireland.
Tourism Ireland's St. Patrick's Day programme spanned Great Britain, mainland Europe and North America, as well as developing markets. The tourism agency availed of every opportunity to capitalise on Ireland's heightened profile on television, in newspapers and in digital media to promote good value holidays and short breaks in 2012 and to launch the 2013 tourism initiative, The Gathering, overseas. As part of this year's St. Patrick's Day festival in Dublin, many of the city's iconic buildings were illuminated green. I hope this can be extended next year for The Gathering. The idea of extending this initiative to include more buildings throughout the country as part of the St. Patrick's Day festivities merits consideration. I will ask Fáilte Ireland to examine the matter further. Given the minimal costs that were associated with the greening of the international landmarks, I do not imagine the costs involved in a domestic programme would warrant a grants initiative as suggested by the Deputy.
I welcome the Minister's reply. I acknowledge the work that Tourism Ireland has done in this area. It was disappointing from the perspective of the home market that the emphasis was placed on buildings overseas. It may have been an oversight. I accept that an effort was made in Dublin in the case of the Trinity College and Bank of Ireland buildings on College Green. There are many iconic buildings and landmarks in other parts of the country. The Minister mentioned in his reply that an emphasis was placed on the St. Patrick's festival in Dublin. I presume he was not giving an exhaustive commitment when he said that. In light of next year's initiative, The Gathering, perhaps the St. Patrick's festival can be extended to encompass the whole country in 2013.
I welcome the Deputy's suggestion. The cost of the entire greening initiative overseas was less than €20,000. It was money very well spent by Tourism Ireland. A third of the money for that project came from the Northern Ireland Executive, thankfully. Most of those involved agreed to turn the landmarks green without looking for any money at all. I would actually be a little disappointed if officials associated with civic and private buildings around Ireland wanted a grant to go green when so many officials associated with buildings around the world are willing to do so without one.
I was really encouraged by an Irish student, Ben Finnegan, who took it upon himself to convince the mayor of Salamanca in Spain to turn the Plaza Major green. He was successful. I rang Mr. Finnegan last week to thank him. He made a suggestion that is worth considering, that is, that we should launch a big campaign to encourage the Irish overseas, including students and workers, to have the buildings in their cities turned green for The Gathering around St. Patrick's Day. Perhaps we could do something domestically by asking members of the local authorities and chambers of commerce to join in the initiative over the festival period.
In the absence of the Green political movement, perhaps the Minister will start by greening this building next year. This is an iconic building in the centre of our capital city. Beginning here could afford an opportunity to broaden the scheme through the OPW, local authorities and churches, who control many of our iconic buildings.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I, too, must mention Ben Finnegan, an Erasmus student who brought this matter to our attention before St. Patrick's Day. It is disappointing that we do not have an initiative at home to make green the main State buildings, be they in Cork, Dublin or Galway. An initiative of this kind would be very good because we have some fantastic buildings that we could display. We should not rely on other European countries; we should take the initiative ourselves.
I compliment the Minister and the Department on the initiative. To some extent, I disagree with my colleagues in that a Government initiative is not required. It is a question of selling Ireland abroad; we do not need to green our own buildings but to do more with our parades to display our culture and attract tourists.
The impetus must come from local communities. We have become far too dependent on the Government and we expect it to lead and drive everything. In my county this year, I saw much greater activity in villages and towns. Much of this is because of the economic position. I saw people at parades who would previously have taken pride in going to Lanzarote or Majorca for the weekend. This year, they were staying at home and spending their money at home, which is positive and good. We must use our scarce resources as best as we can overseas and use the days around St. Patrick's Day to try to attract people to Ireland and display our Irishness.
We should definitely have a campaign internationally to have the Irish overseas convince their universities or towns to go green. It would be very nice to achieve this at home also. One should bear in mind many foreign tourists come to Ireland over the St. Patrick's Day period, at which time the tourism season really begins. Tourists would comment if they noticed the entire city of Cork or Galway, or various towns, had gone green. I agree with Deputy Dooley, however, that this should be achieved from the bottom up. It is not expensive and special lights are not needed; it is just a matter of putting a green film over the lights. It is not an initiative that should require the involvement of the Government. It should be done from the bottom up as a local initiative. Perhaps we can kick it off as an idea and challenge people to go green.
