Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. Tourism hugely benefits the island of Ireland. The sector has come a long way, changing its dynamic. I live in Boyle, County Roscommon. I was heavily involved in ensuring Lough Key Forest Park was developed. At the time, Coillte owned the park and people were concerned about its future ownership.

In 2001, I advised the local authority that if it took a stake in the park we could draw down the European regional development grants. The park got €15 million to €16 million and is now a major tourist attraction. It needs to be added.

However, we have no hotels. There were two hotels in Boyle previously, but they are closed. Five hotels were refused planning permission. Hotels were built all around the country but they are not where we need them. I had a meeting yesterday as I am trying to get the local authority to examine this. It is very difficult now to get people in the tourism industry to locate in those areas because we missed out during the boom. I was also in China last week and met various investors who are considering another hotel. Is it not ironic that the witnesses are telling us how important and successful the tourism industry is, yet we find it very difficult to get investors from the indigenous tourism sector to invest in places which I believe have huge potential? Perhaps we are missing something. Those are only two issues. I am trying to get the local authority to develop a hotel in Boyle and when I was on the Oireachtas representatives' tour I met Chinese investors to try to get them to invest in a hotel in Roosky, which is already there. That tells me there is something fundamentally wrong with the industry.

However, we have come a long way. I believe there are huge opportunities in China. There are now two direct flights, one from Hong Kong to Dublin and one from Beijing to Dublin. That was unheard of, and we are in a much better position with regard to exports and tourism. In addition, there are direct flights from Frankfurt to Knock airport. People have said there is a noticeable number of German tourists in the west of Ireland because of these flights. Ryanair and Aer Lingus have helped the industry by bringing people in. I realise they are bringing people out as well, but it is something we should not underestimate.

The witness said that the Government was not doing enough with regard to investment. In 2011 a strategic decision was made to reduce VAT to 9%. It is worth approximately €625 million per year. Many people, including people in the unions, oppose it. They believe it is wrong. I am a little taken aback not by the tone but with regard to this €625 million per year. If we had not done it the tourism industry would have been much worse off. I appreciate that the witnesses must fight for extra money in the budget but I wish to make that point.

Finally, the global Irish homecoming and the Wild Atlantic Way have been a huge success. The challenge is to get tourists out of Dublin. The witnesses are correct that we are missing out on UK tourists now. Perhaps they have all been to Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland and are now going somewhere else, but there is a new open market with China as well as the United States. They are high worth, they are spending and they are coming here. The Germans and French also travel to the places in the country where we need them such as Carrick-on-Shannon, Boyle, Sligo and so forth.

It has been a very successful seven or eight years. However, hotel prices, especially in Dublin, can sometimes be off the Richter scale. That might be due to lack of capacity but that is being addressed. I was in the Iveagh Garden Hotel on Harcourt Street last night, which has 150 rooms. We need more hotels. A hotel in a local town is part of the social infrastructure. It need not be a huge hotel. I appeal to people in this regard. The Government cannot give grant aid because it would distort the market, but there are huge opportunities in smaller towns around the country that do not have a hotel and need one. Do the witnesses have any views on that or do they have ideas about how politicians or the Government can help would-be hoteliers to develop such hotels? There are probably only 40 or 50 areas left in the country that do not have that social infrastructure and need it.

Again, I thank the witnesses. It has been a successful nine or ten years during the most difficult of times. I know what it is worth because I had a bar and restaurant as well as a newsagents many years ago and we lived off the tourists. One saw the industry changing. For ten or 15 years we had fishermen coming to the rivers and lakes but they seemed to disappear. They were replaced by a different type of tourist. The challenge is to get the tourists out of the main areas in Dublin. I was chairman of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and was a member of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Ironically, the opening of the Titanic centre in Belfast has brought more people from the South to Northern Ireland than probably ever went there in the last 100 years. It is very welcome.