Vol. 526 No. 6
372 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the State agencies that work to promote tourism here; the resources made available by the Government in order to promote tourism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27498/00]
The State agency with primary responsibility for the promotion and marketing of Irish tourism is Bord Fáilte.
Details of the financial allocation for Bord Fáilte are set out in the Book of Estimates for 2000. I would also refer the Deputy to the National Development Plan 2000-2006, which makes provision for a multi-annual tourism marketing fund for that period.
Under the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement, a publicly owned limited company will shortly be established by Bord Fáilte and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board aimed at promoting inward tourism to the island of Ireland.
As Minister with responsibility for Tourism, I, together with my Department, am responsible for the formulation and development of national tourism policy. This policy is, in turn, implemented by the main tourism agencies under my Department's remit, namely, Bord Fáilte, CERT and Shannon Development. These agencies report directly to the Department which monitors their respective performance against policy objectives, including overall expenditure of grants-in-aid from the Department's Vote.
The agencies retain day-to-day responsibility for their expenditures and for the operation of schemes and services provided by them to the tourism industry. Further information about these bodies, together with the mission, goals and strategies of the Department are to be found in the Department's Strategic Management Statement, 1998-2001, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library.
