Written Answers Nos. 196-205
196. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans for a survey of the motorway close to Shankill, Paulstown, County Kilkenny, in order to determine the works required to reduce the level of noise from passing motorway traffic at this location. [52476/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. The planning, design and operation of individual road projects is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.
Noting the above position, I have referred the Deputy’s question to TII for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you don’t receive a reply within 10 working days.
197. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if a reply will issue to correspondence received from a person (details supplied) regarding the sports grant allocation for County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52492/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Sports Capital Programme is the primary means of providing Government funding to sport and community organisations at local, regional and national level.
The 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme closed for applications on the 24th February and by that date a record number of applications were received. When the programme was launched, it was envisaged that €30m would be available which would have made the allocation of grants particularly challenging. Following the conclusion of the budget discussions and in order to allow as many worthwhile projects as possible to receive some funding, significant extra resources were secured to allocate under this round.
The allocations in respect of all local applications were announced on Thursday 30th November. Full details of these allocations are available on my Department's website as is the scoring system and assessment procedures used for assessing applications. In this regard, the total amount available to allocate was first divided by county on a per capita basis. If a county could not use all of its per capita funding, any surplus funding was also redistributed to other counties on a per capita basis.
The exact amount allocated to each project was primarily based on the assessment score and the amount sought with some minimal rounding and adjustments to make as many projects as possible viable. In relation to the distribution of funding within any particular county, it should be noted that every valid local application has been allocated some funding. The programme is open to every local sporting organisation in every county and my Department has no role in determining the organisations in any county that may submit applications. Variations in the geographic and sporting distribution of funding within each county are to be expected.
In the case of County Louth, it should be noted that a total €1.6m was allocated to 42 projects with at least 8 of these being in the immediate Drogheda region.
198. Deputy Kevin O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the value of payments drawn down by an organisation (details supplied); and when the final payment is due to be made to the organisation. [52508/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraFunding of €30m for the redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh was announced in Budget 2014.
My Department has already paid out €23.087 million in respect of the project. Further payments will be made shortly. In accordance with the standard terms and conditions of the Sports Capital Programme, at least 5% of the overall grant (€1.5m in this case) must be retained until the Department has received the completion certificate from the project technical advisor. This is usually a year after the completion of the construction project.
199. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the budget for tourism spending since 2011; the funding that has been provided to Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52566/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe breakdown of the total Exchequer provision for tourism services, including Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, from my Department's vote, is available in the annual Revised Estimates Volume (REV) for Public Services, which is published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and available on that Department's website.
200. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the strategy that has been put in place by the tourism agencies under his remit to promote Dublin in competition with other European cities as opposed to other regions; the budget that has been expended on tourism initiatives and tourism in Dublin generally since 2014, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52567/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe matter raised by the Deputy is an operational matter for the boards and management of the tourism agencies. Accordingly, I have referred the Deputy's question to Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland for direct reply to the Deputy. Please contact my private office if you have not received a reply within ten working days.
201. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of Fáilte Ireland's development of a ten-year strategic plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52568/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra203. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the level to which Fáilte Ireland has engaged with stakeholders in the preparation on its ten-year strategic plan; the stakeholders that have been invited to make submissions and have made submissions respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52570/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 201 and 203 together.
Fáilte Ireland is required to operate within the legislative framework provided by Oireachtas Eireann and the policy framework set by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. Certain corporate governance provisions and set out in the legislative and policy framework, including the production of periodic corporate publications (e.g. Annual Report and Accounts, Strategy Statement and others). The specific matter raised by the Deputy is an operational one for the board and management of Fáilte Ireland. Accordingly I have referred the Deputy's question to the agency for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.
202. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the locations from which tourists to Dublin predominantly come; the categories of tourists, such as business, leisure, sport, walking and so on that visit Dublin in terms of numbers and percentage of the total tourist make up, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52569/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is aware, official statistics on tourism are published by the Central Statistics Office. Whilst the CSO does not currently publish statistics for overseas visitors on a county or regional basis, Fáilte Ireland uses CSO data to estimate regional figures for overseas visitors, including Dublin, which it publishes on an annual basis in its Tourism Facts release, which is available at www.failteireland.ie. This publication indicates that, in 2016, of the 5.687 million overseas visitors to Dublin, 39% came from Mainland Europe, 33% from Britain, 21% from North America and 7% from elsewhere. The release does not detail the categories of overseas tourists visiting Dublin.
204. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the markets and countries from which tourists visiting come from; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52571/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe CSO publishes official statistics on tourism in Ireland. These statistics are published and available at www.cso.ie.
The CSO data shows that overseas visits to Ireland in 2016 grew by 10.9% compared to 2015. There were 9,584,400 overseas visits to Ireland during 2016, coming from the following markets:
- Visits from Mainland Europe grew by 8.5% in 2016, to 3,302,100 visits
- North America registered an increase of 19.4% for 2016 (1,808,000 visits)
- Visits from Great Britain were up by 10.6% for 2016 (3,924,100 visits)
- Visits from the rest of the world (mostly long-haul and developing markets) totalled 550,200 for 2016 (representing an increase of 2.2%).
Trips to Ireland for the first ten months of 2017 were up by 3.1% compared to the corresponding period in 2016. There were 8,531,500 overseas visits to Ireland during the ten-month period.
- Mainland Europe was up by 4.4% for the first ten months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 (3,016,700 visits).
- The number of visits from Britain for the first ten months of 2017 was down by -6.1% compared to the same period in 2016 (3,132,900 visits).
- The number of visits from North America was up by 16.4% for the first ten months of 2017 compared to the corresponding period in 2016, with a total of 1,845,200 visits.
- For Other (i.e. long-haul) markets, there was a 14.7% increase in visit numbers in the first ten months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 (536,600 visits).
More detailed information is available on the CSO website.
205. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of licensed drivers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52572/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe number of current licensed drivers in Ireland on 30th November 2017 is 2,867,979.
