Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have had a big involvement in tourism over the years and have been on the board of Fáilte Ireland. I have never seen an organisation or a group of organisations working so well. They are a credit to the country. They are doing a phenomenal job. As Mr. Gallagher said, the State agencies and the industry work really well together and have created tremendous success. I may not be 100% correct in this but I understand that every €1 spent in Ireland by a foreign tourist generates something like €1.52 for the Exchequer. A 52% annual return is phenomenal. The State is benefitting significantly from the work and effort of the organisations represented here.

Those involved in tourism in Ireland are winning in an industry that is the most diverse and competitive in the world. People have many choices of where to go and what to do on holiday, and they are looking for variety and change. We need to increase the market. However, we are not out of the recession years. We have an image and we suggest things are great. As far as I am concerned, from an economic perspective things are not great. Some people mentioned earlier that we have a three-tier economy and that is particularly true in the tourism industry. Mr. Dolan mentioned Leitrim, and it is very true about Leitrim and central Ireland. The Wild Atlantic Way has been a phenomenal success. I commend the imagination, creativity and entrepreneurship of Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Quinn and the team in Fáilte Ireland, together with Mr. Gibbons and his team in what they are doing to market that worldwide. I do not know how Mr. Gibbons does it - I get his tweets and they are from all over the flipping world. That is absolutely huge.

The Wild Atlantic Way is doing very well. The efforts and plans regarding the lakelands and so on are critical. As Mr. Dolan rightly said, tourism is the mainstay of many small areas not just for pubs and bed and breakfasts, but also for local bus hire companies and so on.

I return to the macro view. A significant amount of joined-up thinking is required. There is a plethora of organisations dealing with tourism in Ireland. Transport is critical for tourism. Is there a tourist transport strategy or can the organisations represented here influence tourism transport? The OPW was mentioned. The tourism industry is very much in the OPW's hands regarding our national parks and heritage, which are obviously important from a tourism perspective. The Leader programme is involved with tourism. The Western Development Commission is involved in tourism. Local authorities are doing their own thing when it comes to tourism. We do not have proper joined-up thinking and strategy to support what the State agencies are doing on a national and international level, and what the industry is doing. I may be wrong on joined-up thinking, but I do not think I am.

I mentioned regional strategy. I am a bit concerned about price inflation and we do not want to go back to the price inflation we had in 2004, 2005 and 2006. We got significant adverse PR over that. Tourism Ireland, in particular, and Fáilte Ireland had a lot of work to do to counteract that. I was on the board of Fáilte Ireland at the time and it was a significant issue.

Another issue at that time related to the markets. We were very heavily dependent on the internal market at that time and we were beginning to go into a recessionary period. There was big concern about how the hotels and wider tourism industry outside Dublin could cope because we were heavily dependent on the local market. I ask Mr. Keeley if that has changed and if so how. Have we sheltered ourselves a bit in that regard?

The witnesses spoke about CERT, third level colleges and SMEs regarding the training and quality of the product. They also spoke about the marketing side of it. Most businesses in the tourism area are SMEs - bed and breakfasts, small bars and so on. While tourism is a part-time income for them, it is a critical part-time income in order for them to survive.

I have a couple of points on Brexit. I am using the delegates' figures so they may correct me if I am wrong. The income from the tourism industry in the year is €7.5 billion. Some 24% of that comes from the United Kingdom. Oxford Economics states this revenue will reduce by 2.5% in the coming year. If these figures and my calculations are correct, they represent a €45 million reduction for tourism in Ireland next year just as a result of Brexit. I am trying to quantify it. I want to know whether I am correct in that. The loss of €45 million is a lot of money but, compared with €7.5 billion, it is not huge. Mr. Gibbons referred to growth next year. It still looks like we are in a good position. I am trying to quantify the effect of Brexit in regard to the overall picture.