Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank members very much for their questions. A lot of them were comments, which are equally useful, to be honest, to hear what members' views are. Let me deal with Deputy Fitzpatrick's first. He talked about some of the cutbacks and the lack of funding in various areas. The tourism marketing fund went up by €1 million this year. On 8 June the Minister of State with responsibility for tourism and sport, Deputy O'Donovan, launched the new Fáilte Ireland capital investment support for large tourism projects, which will provide a pool of €65 million in investment to develop new, or boost existing, tourist experiences or attractions across Ireland. That scheme will run from 2016 to 2020. The Government's capital programme provides for €125 million in expenditure. We are not starving the funding , but Deputy Fitzpatrick is right that it is and probably will remain tight. This is a good news story. We have done incredibly well, despite the cutbacks. Yesterday's tourism figures, which were published in the newspapers today, were better again and very encouraging. I hope we can continue it, despite what Deputy Troy quite rightly points out as the Brexit intervention. It is extremely serious if it continues, because of the exchange rate, which he identified. Nobody can tell how long the exchange rate will be low for. The initial response is yes, the collapse of sterling in the last few days will damage the fact that 40% of our tourists come from the UK, although they spend only 25% of the money spent here. That is a serious prospect for us and something we must recognise.

Exchange rates are difficult to predict. There is no reason to believe that they may not recover. In fact, I heard this morning that we need to be careful about assuming it will remain that way. Markets are very unpredictable. I heard one of the so-called market experts this morning say exchange rates will bounce back. We want to watch them carefully, but of course it is a serious situation. They may go down further.

I presume that the answer to this is along the lines of the sensible suggestions Deputy Murphy offered about cultural tourism and other such areas that would not directly relate to people's pockets. The fact that it will be cheaper for them is not necessarily the only reason people come here. They may come because we offer products that appeal to a certain sector or group of people in the UK who have not visited before. It is imperative that we and the agencies immediately recognise that we might need to go in search of other markets. I suspect that we ought to go to areas where the currency is stronger. We should look at that as well. Once sterling falls, presumably the dollar will go up and other currencies will rise against the euro. We can certainly look that way. I am not an expert on this, but we have to do some very hard thinking about it. The success story will end if Brexit has the worst effects on tourism that we fear. Let us hope it does not, but I am sure it is something the agencies already recognise. I was with one of them in Paris on Friday and what they said was really encouraging. The Chairman touched on it just now. They said that it is staggeringly difficult, but look at the soccer players. They are sending out a fantastic message already to the world that Irish people are friendly and dynamic. That is hugely positive, even in the midst of this crisis. I would not regard it as doomsday, but it is serious. The agencies have to react, but I think they are and taking advantage of something that has already appeared, totally coincidentally.

On Deputy Troy's point, I suppose the midlands do not necessarily feel part of the great success of the Wild Atlantic Way and some of the other projects such as Ireland's Ancient East, but the midlands certainly have a great deal to offer. The lakeland district was particularly identified as a target area in the programme for Government. We have already mentioned greenways, which will be very big and attractive selling points for the midlands. The greenway opened between Mullingar and Athlone last year. There have been developments in other areas. I do not think that there is any reason for despair. Maybe the fact that the Wild Atlantic Way has been the flagship project means that other areas of the country feel left out, but I do not think there is any intention to neglect the midlands. People realise that Athlone and other areas throughout the midlands have an enormous amount to offer. They will be and have to be promoted.