Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to this meeting. It would be remiss of me not to thank him for yesterday's announcement regarding the N22 road between Macroom and Baile Bhúirne, which is great news for the Kerry constituency and the south-west region. I think it is a game-changer. It will be the greatest socioeconomic development for Kerry in many years. I would also like to mention the N69, the Adare bypass and the Dingle relief road. They comprise a great suite of measures for County Kerry. I would like to express gratitude on behalf of the people of Kerry. Yesterday was a very good day for the county, after many dark years.

The Minister is aware that I have been raising the need to try to boost winter tourism for many years. I believe we have an excellent opportunity to boost visitor numbers to Ireland in the shoulder months. I suggest that the Wild Atlantic Way is an excellent vehicle in this regard. We should market that product as a winter experience as much as a summer experience. I have always used the example of standing on Slea Head looking out to the Atlantic in January, as distinct from July. I think people should be coming from all over the world to experience the ferocious wilderness and invigorating energy of the sea in months like January. Having previously raised this issue in parliamentary questions and received responses from the Minister, I know that extra expenditure was provided in 2015 to try to market the shoulder months and the winter months. Do we have any update on how that it going? Are we getting a worthwhile return on our efforts to boost off-peak visitor numbers? Do we need to put more money in? Is there a tipping point that needs to be reached so that a real impact can be made? I suppose I am looking for as much data as possible on that.