Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his questions and I will come to each in turn. His first question pertained to the allocation of capital funding for regional and local roads. I entirely take his point that one must be aware of the more local roads or, shall I say, the non-national roads or tertiary roads in respect of where money is going and how it is spent. This is something of which I have been aware since becoming Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. I believe one of the country's leading capital needs concerns how to maintain what we have. This is important in so many different areas, including road safety and the maintenance of basic connectivity and safe connectivity across the country. As for how much of the funding I am announcing today and for which I am seeking the sub-committee's approval will go to regional and local roads, in total €32.1 million will be going to that area, of which €12 million pertains to restoration out of which the allocation for community improvement schemes amounts to €6 million. The allocation to deal with the aftermath and consequences of severe weather is €14.1 million, which takes the figure up to €32.1 million. On how that money is spent and in respect of the Deputy's second question regarding the role of local Members and of local authority members, my Department plays a role in setting out what is the template for the scheme or in other words, what contribution one would ask people to make or not make. As for where the money is spent within the county, however, I would expect local councillors to play a leading role in that regard. Even though this is an area for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, I certainly would be interested in the operation of the scheme and in whether the Deputy has observations on it because I would expect local authority councillors either to be influencing substantially where the money will go or to be involved directly in the decision-making on it.

In respect of the Deputy's points on tourism, I completely agree with his comments. At present, there is an understandable amount of focus on the need for balanced regional economic development and one extraordinary thing about tourism is it is one of the main parts of the economy that offers the potential to engage in and influence every town and all counties nationwide. This is why I am so pleased to see the progress of an initiative such as the Wild Atlantic Way in an environment in which politicians, in particular those of us who are in parties in government, always are being asked for more money to do particular things. The beauty of the Wild Atlantic Way for me is that while it did need more money, what it really needed and what is happening is a new way of thinking about what we have and then advertising it better. It has been an extraordinary success with many years to come ahead of it.

On the Deputy's detailed question regarding where money would be going and how it would be used, the success of President Higgins in China already is apparent. As to whether any of this money will be used in following up on that success, the answer to that question definitely is "Yes". Out of the funding of €800,000, some of it will be used on an inter-agency initiative, including, for example, Bord Bia, Science Foundation Ireland and Tourism Ireland, to put together a consumer video advertisement to coincide with the President's visit to China to make the most of that visit.

On Deputy McCarthy's question about how much of this money will be spent this year, all of it will be. It has been requested as a Supplementary Estimate for this year, so the €800,000 will be spent this year.

On the follow-up of State visits, when we know all the plans for President Higgins for next year, we will ensure that there is a tourism dimension to that. The head of Tourism Ireland is part of President Higgins's delegation to China. Tourism is very important for a country of our size, which is so heavily integrated into the global economy and dependent on its ability to win consumers in overseas markets, and it is superb to see the work President Higgins is doing in this area. He is just back from Africa, where he was doing very important work in one area and now he is following that up with different work abroad, in China, which is being supported by Government Ministers.