I move:
That Seanad Éireann notes the increase in tourist revenue during 1991 and welcomes the Government's continuing commitment to the Irish tourist industry, as outlined in the recent budget initiatives.
The importance of tourism to the Irish economy is well illustrated in the report recently commissioned by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation which shows that over the past number of years tourism grew twice as fast as the national economy and that its share of GNP increased to almost 7 per cent. Tourism revenues topped £1.5 billion in 1990 of which £1.1 billion was foreign exchange earnings. In 1990 the Government raised over £400 million in tax revenue from tourism and the total number of full-time jobs supported by tourism was in excess of 80,000 for that year.
Tourism now accounts for one in 14 of all jobs. This sector is one of the few that offers clear opportunities for significant employment expansion in the future, mainly as a result of the Government's and especially the Minister's continuing commitment. I wish to welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Transport and Communications who is with us for the debate this evening. We are always pleased Deputy Lyons comes into the House for motions on tourism as he is now one of the most experienced Ministers in this area. I await his contribution to the debate with great interest as I am sure do all sides of the House.
On the basis of the most recent statistics available, the three year period from 1988 to the end of 1990 — the period we are debating this evening — showed a spectacular and unprecedented growth in Irish tourism. Again, I must pay tribute to the commitment of the Government from 1987 onwards which at last identified the tourist industry as absolutely vital to the future well being of the Irish economy. For many years various lobby groups and tourism interests had stated that the Government of the day needed to quantify their commitment to tourism by bringing in all the various aspects of the industry under one umbrella. Following the 1987 general election, the Government for the first time recognised the importance of tourism as an industry by appointing a Minister with a specific brief in that area. It is now accepted that a Minister with responsibility for Tourism is a vital and important part of Government.
Such is the general and widespread acceptance now of this status that one sometimes wonders why it was not initiated before now. It was obvious the concentration of energies within one Department under a political head was going to benefit the tourism industry and the period under review has shown growth well in line with the target set by the Government. For example, foreign tourist numbers grew by an average of 15 per cent per annum, more than twice the world average, while foreign revenue increased to over £1.1 billion. It is also estimated that tourism has contributed an average of 5,000 new jobs every year since 1988, a tremendous achievement at a time of global recession and despite the Gulf War 12 months ago. Last week the airline industry IATA stated that 1991 has been the worst year on record for the aviation industry. They pointed directly to the global recession and to the aftermath of the Gulf War following which people were less inclined to travel abroad.
Despite this glowing mid-term report on the Irish tourism industry — the operational programme for tourism goes right through to 1993 — there is never room for complacency. Last year serious problems were presented to the tourist industry not only in Ireland but internationally. Nevertheless, despite the prophets of doom and despite those who in late spring, in debating tourism in this House on the basis of the indicators of that time, said that Irish tourism was in for a bumpy ride at best and for a severe downturn at worst, I am pleased to say that the tourism industry responded magnificently to those challenges.
Ireland performed better than originally anticipated. For example, overseas tourist numbers were within 2.6 per cent of the 1990 record figures which was an achievement in itself. Although there was no palpable increase in tourist numbers, there was a significant increase in tourist revenue, mainly as a result of the excellent marketing strategies carried out by Bord Fáilte. They directed their considerable energies away from the United States — which by mid-spring last year was already showing signs of severe recession coupled with the natural reluctance of Americans to travel abroad in times of uncertainty generated by the Gulf War and its aftermath — and concentrated on mainland Europe to great effect. That market continues to show strong growth.
While overall British tourist numbers are down, there is evidence of a significant increase in pure holiday traffic from that market as distinct from the traditional ethnic market, the emigrant market. The emigrant market has been of tremendous value to this country for decades. It is not stated often enough in this House or outside how valuable a contribution our emigrants have made acting as unofficial ambassadors for Ireland, especially in Britain where Irish people have been under constant attack arising from the continuing appalling problems of violence affecting part of this island.
As a former emigrant I was fortuante to spend most of my time in England prior to the current troubles in Northern Ireland so I did not experience at first hand the level of prejudice and downright racism many of my Irish compatriots have experienced since the mid-seventies as a result of the IRA campaign.
It is to their eternal credit that Irish people abroad, and particularly in England, have never lost their sense of identiy, their pride in being Irish, and have been able to convey this pride in themselves and their native country to such an extraordinary degree that British tourists with no Irish connections whatsoever come to this country on the basis of their personal relationships with Irish people in Britain.
At the risk of sounding trivial, I want to emphasise the important role of a number of our leading entertainers, particularly in the United Kingdom, who have presented such a positive image of this island, not only in the material they record but in their manner on radio, televison and in concerts. I am thinking particularly of Daniel O'Donnell, Foster and Allen and of the Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur, to name three from a particular sector of the music industry. I also think of the tremendous contribution U2 have made and the Saw Doctors are now making. These comments may be regarded by some as trivial in the context of a debate on tourism but that is a problem for those critics. Those of us who operate between Britain and Ireland and who are strongly associated with emigrant groups in Britain can testify to the important work they are doing. I note the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications, Deputy Brennan, in launching a tourism task force yesterday in Dublin has included among it membership Mr. Chris de Burgh, the entertainer and Mr. Oliver Barry, the well known promotor and former head of Century Radio. The Minister has obviously acknowledged the contribution the entertainment industry is making to promoting tourism in Ireland.
Last year the home holiday market which is often overlooked also performed well. Here, again, it is an expression of practical partriotism by Irish people to choose to spend their holdiays in Ireland. I know the sand and sun of the Costa de Sol can appear very attractive to people in the depths of a grey Irish winter when they are planning their holidays, but it is to their credit that Irish people consciously take the decision to spend their holiday time and their money in Ireland and so make a contribution to the Irish economy.
This expression of practical patriotism by the Irish people should evoke a more positive response from those invovled in the tourism market here. One has only to look at the letters pages of the various national newspapers, particularly at this time when people are planning holdays, to read what others think of us. Recently a German tourist spoke about his disappointment at part of County Kerry and made a very valid point among other points that I thought not so valid. He referred to the amount of litter in a particular part of the south-west and could not understand why so many Irish supermarkets and retail outlets supplied bags free to shoppers which were then dumped in the nearest outlet rather than taken home. He paralled that with the position in Germany where one has to pay for shopping bags. He felt that if the Irish had to pay for their shopping bags they would not be so keen on throwing them around the countryside. This is a small point but as those of you involved in the Tidy Towns Competition for many years will testify, adjudicators in all annual reports on various towns and villages say that the starting point for improving and enhancing a rural or urban environment must be the elimination of litter. It is a valid point.
Recent CSO statistics show that foreign tourism revenue for the first nine months of 1991 was up by almost 7 per cent on the corresponding period in 1990. That is the result of tremendous work carried out by Bord Fáilte and those in the tourist industry. The facts speak for themselves and it really is a jumping off point, a platform for even greater achievement as the operational programme for tourism continues through to 1993. It is this revenue that creates much needed jobs in our economy and I hope this trend will at least be maintained when figures for the full year become available. This performance provides evidence, if such were needed, that the Government's tourism policy in recent years was correct and the industry is better prepared to face external challenges than ever before. This year will bring its own challenges and Bord Fáilte and the industry will be doing their utmost to get tourism back on target with a return to double digit growth for 1992.
The budget will facilitate this effort. It is designed to stimulate employment generally and contains a number of measures to achieve this. The significant easing of personal taxation in general impacts on costs which are particularly important in the labour-intensive tourism market. Furthermore the decision by the Minister for Finance, despite the present economic difficulties, to avoid VAT increases on tourism related expenditure on hotel accommodation, meals and car hire and additional excise duties on alcohol should also pay dividends and has been welcomed by the industry.
Specific problems were feared in the car hire sector this year. All of us here will be familiar with stories in the media over the past few weeks about a potential crisis in the car hire industry here during the months of July and August, the fear being that there would not be sufficient numbers of cars available for hire at that peak time. To counteract this fear the budget allocated £1 million to assist this strategically important sector.
The reduction in excise duties in new cars and on petrol will also help. It is sometimes forgotten that one of the main lobbying points being made by those in the tourism industry over the last number of years has been the relatively high cost of petrol vis-a-vis our European neighbours. One of the requests some years ago was that Ireland should introduce some form of coupons for tourists such was the high cost of petrol per gallon— being good Europeans we should refer to it in litres — in comparison with our European neighbours. The Government acted not only fairly but wisely in reducing the burden of excise duty on petrol. Some economists are suggesting that with the current global glut in the petrol market coupled with these imaginative initiatives in the recent budget the resulting decrease in the cost of petrol per gallon could be as much as 12p to 15p.
These budget measures provide real assistance to meet the demand by tourists for hired cars this season and ensure that valuable revenue is not lost to the industry generally. I do not think the House needs reminding of the sad development in Senator McKenna's county recently when one of the major players in the car hire market went into liquidation.