Vol. 487 No. 1
52 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation his views on the way in which to encourage the further development of tourist accommodation and amenities in coastal and other resort towns and villages. [3301/98]
As with all parts of the country, coastal and other resort towns and villages are the beneficiaries of the very substantial investment which has taken place in tourist amenities under the previous and current Operational Programme for Tourism. Other EU funded programmes which provide support for smaller tourism initiatives are the Programme for Agriculture, Rural Development and Forestry and the Leader II Programme administered by the Department of Agriculture and Food. There is also the local urban and rural development programme under which, inter alia, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment's county enterprise boards operate. In the Border counties, limited assistance is also available under the IFI and INTERREG programmes and the Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. Attractive subsidised loan schemes have also been available to a wide range of tourism projects.
It has been policy for some time, of course, not to provide direct grant support for tourist accommodation projects, on the basis of the proven ability of the commercial accommodation sector to respond to growth in visitor numbers without grant assistance.
