Mr. John James O'Hara:

I thank the committee for this opportunity to address it on behalf of Border Communities against Brexit. Our main business is tourism. We have a bed and breakfast and a tour company, Irish Life Tours. I will explain what we see coming down the road for the tourism industry. Tourism Ireland, which was established under the Good Friday Agreement, markets all Thirty-two Counties of Ireland. It has important offices around the world. We work very closely with its New York office. The problem at the moment is that it has cut its forecast for the coming year by 6% because of Brexit. This is a fact. In 2016, tourism in the North of Ireland increased by 26% and tourism in the Border counties increased by 14%. It is the second biggest industry in the island of Ireland.

The problem coming down the road relates to who will fund Tourism Ireland in the future. In 2008, its funding was cut by a certain percentage. The year 2010 was the worst for tourism in the history of the island of Ireland. The problem we have is that tourists are making up their minds today. We have to market two years in advance. We have been at meetings in Italy and Germany in recent months. The problem is that we do our marketing two years in advance. People consider the idea of coming to Ireland in the first year and budget for that idea in the second year, before coming to Ireland in the third year. This problem needs to be sorted out today because it is having an effect on the ground today. We cannot wait until Brexit happens two years down the road. We have seen the figures for EU visitor numbers in the first three months of this year. There has been a reduction of 5.5%. Brexit is already happening on the ground. The issues to which I refer are developing because of currency fluctuations and fear.

I will explain the main thing that is concerning us. This is what is coming up in our meetings across Europe. People want to know whether tourists will be safe if there is a border in two years' time. That is a big issue. It came up in Italy and in Germany. These are facts. We are here today to explain our problem. Tourism Ireland needs to know where it will get funding as it goes forward, and what level of funding it will get. Are the Twenty-six Counties to be marketed separately from the Six Counties? Will we be selling an island that is partly in the EU and partly out of the EU? This is a real problem for businesses on the ground. Tourism is the second largest industry in rural Ireland. Many of those who own farms are involved in tourism as a second business, for example by renting houses, canoes or bicycles. We need to get answers for them.

The second issue I am here to talk about is funding. The North of Ireland has received over £7 billion in EU funding under various programmes. One of the main programmes is the Erasmus programme. It is a very big programme for young students across the North of Ireland. It gives them an opportunity to spend 29 days in various parts of Europe. Their accommodation, food and travel costs are paid. Are we saying to our young people that in two years' time, they will be unable to go to different parts of Europe under this programme? We have students from Italy in our own business at the moment. They are here for three weeks. Last week, we had students in from Poland. We work with colleges across Europe. The students from those colleges are selling our products on the ground in Italy, Poland and Germany. We bring students canoeing and we show them various places and things around us. They are treated well when they come here. When they go back to their own countries, they tell 20 people around them about their experiences. This is the best and cheapest way of marketing Ireland as a tourism product. Funding is a major industry. The Peace Bridge in Derry is one of the finest projects one will see. The tourism issues across the Border counties need to be sorted out sooner rather than later.