Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 15 Oct 1997

Vol. 481 No. 5

Written Answers - Tourism Programme.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

57 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources if he will make a statement on the mid-term evaluation report on the Operational Programme for Tourism, 1994-1999, that spending under Measure 3 of Sub-Programme 2, that is tourism angling, be specifically reviewed in view of the fact spending is very slow and well behind target. [16698/97]

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

58 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources if he will make a statement on the mid-term evaluation of the Operational Programme for Tourism, 1994-1999, in which it states that tourism angling is one of the few areas where visiting members and satisfaction with the facilities have declined sharply and that there are major problems with the international marketing of Irish angling facilities while very little of the investment approved to date has been for coarse angling facilities, the most popular type of angling among overseas visitors. [16700/97]

Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources (Dr. Woods)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 57 and 58 together.

The primary objective of the tourism angling measure of the Operational Programme for Tourism, to which almost £18 million has been allocated in the period to 1999, is to enhance the tourism angling product and to ensure that our coarse, game and sea angling resources are upgraded to the best international standards, thereby increasing tourism revenue and employment. More than £12 million has been allocated to date under the measure which represents a satisfactory level of commitment to date.

Fitzpatrick Associates, Economic Consultants, were engaged by the monitoring committee in February 1996 to undertake the mid-term evaluation of the Operational Programme for Tourism. In so far as the tourism angling measure is concerned, the mid-term evaluation recommended, among other matters, that while there was no convincing rationale for altering the financial allocation to the measure, apart from a small transfer to the marketing sub-programme, overall spending under the measure should be part of the end-1997 expenditure review; substantially more attention should be paid to the international promotion of Ireland's angling product; and the allocation of funding across the different types of angling should be altered with more attention given to rectifying the problems which were leading to the falling popularity of coarse and sea angling.

Progress on the implementation of the recommendations of the mid-term evaluation which were accepted will be discussed at the next meeting of the operational programme's monitoring committee when specific measures and proposals designed to address the issues identified by the evaluator will be assessed.