Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Colleagues will be glad to hear I am not going to talk about the President. The issue I raise is the development in recent years of what are known as designated activity companies, DACs. The local authorities are using these companies to develop tourism and other products. In Clare, for example, there are two DACs I am aware of and there probably are more. One is Ennis 2040 and the other is the Cliffs of Moher Experience. My problem with these tools for progressing tourism and so on is that they have a commercial remit and are potentially likely to displace businesses. The Cliffs of Moher 2040 project proposes to create a retail offering at the cliffs above and beyond what is there at the moment, which will end up displacing retailers who are ratepayers. There is a lot of concern in my constituency about the Ennis 2040 DAC, which is developing a retail offering in the centre of town. In essence, the State is going into the retail business and, by extension, displacing, or at least potentially displacing, other businesses that are ratepayers. We need a debate on the whole principle of DACs, including their role and how they potentially could end up putting others out of business, thereby creating insolvency and job losses.While we all have a common goal, which is to develop tourism and develop Ireland, we cannot do that in a sneaky way through activity companies that could end up putting other companies out of business.