Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am just getting my train of thought after the vote. I thank Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and the Irish Hotels Federation for their presentations to the committee. It is a good news story that the 2013 figures to date are positive, but it is a tale of two countries in terms of tourism in many ways. If I could be a little parochial, I live in west Cork and that part of the country is not seeing the bounce that is reflected in the figures the witnesses have put forward today, welcome as they are. The witnesses are flying the green flag and that is as it should be. Many of our communities who have engaged with The Gathering or who have seen for the first time the benefits of tourism do not, in an economic context, have the same options that are available to those in urban areas. We cannot attract Enterprise Ireland or IDA investment into those areas. For many of those communities, the only lifeline they can see to maintain economic activity is tourism or tourism-based products. There is great frustration in this respect among small communities who do not have a built heritage but have the natural and cultural heritage on which the witnesses have put such emphasis and they do not see the same return. It is not the job of the witnesses' organisations to build hotels or infrastructure but we have access issues. That is a big problem along the western seaboard. The witnesses can talk about the Wild Atlantic Way from Donegal down to the south west but if they market it to countries it will be difficult for tourists to access it. Our national roads infrastructure has torpedoed the Cork-Dublin scheduled flights. An interesting initiative was undertaken in west Cork some years back when the people there tried to build the Cork-Swansea ferry from scratch through community initiatives but, regrettably, that project fell flat. Many people lost a good deal of money on it and it is indicative of the frustration that has been felt. We recognise we have a product but we are missing the link of getting the market to the product or building on that. How seriously are the witnesses' organisations taking on board the issue of spreading the product beyond west of the Shannon, to borrow a phrase that was used by one of the witnesses?

The second big issue is that of seasonality. The witnesses' organisations will not get the investment they require to get the infrastructure in place in areas along the western seaboard where there is only an eight-week to a ten-week season. There is no reason the marine leisure sector could not be a 12-month product but that is not happening for some reason. Similarly, activity-based products could fill the gap but that does not seem to be happening. A small effort would make a massive difference to places like west Cork and Donegal where the impact would be as significant as the impact of visitor numbers to Temple Bar, Dublin, Cork, Kilkenny and Waterford. I would like to hear the views of the witnesses on how those challenges could be addressed. Those rural areas are equally entitled to get a little of the bounce and share in the welcome news the witnesses have portrayed.