Mr. Eoghan O'Mara Walsh:

On whether there is enough investment in the midlands Hidden Heartlands, there is not. I believe €2 million was initially allocated which will not go a long way for that size of area. More investment will have to be put in on a long-term basis both in marketing for an international audience and product development. On the geographic positioning of the Hidden Heartlands, it is only something that we ourselves have seen in recent weeks and are still coming to grips with it. There does seem to be an area, somewhat like a Venn diagram, where some areas of the country can choose whether to be in Ireland's Ancient East or the Hidden Heartlands. I think that Fáilte Ireland's logic is that it is up to the particular tourism product or business as to what they think best fits their profile. That is work in progress and we will have to keep an eye on it.

On product money, I think we all agree that there is not enough investment in capital and infrastructure for tourism. The €300 million earmarked over the next ten years is all back-loaded with only around €100 million or €120 million for the first four or five years. We are not in a position to call for a review of the national development plan, which I believe is due in 2022, and hopefully tourism will get a bigger share of the pie then, but in the current allocation we could ask that rather than the sum of money being allocated towards the end of the term, it should be front-loaded which would make a big difference. Within the strategy developed by the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, ITIC, we have proposed some tourism investment ideas such as a coast-to-coast greenway from Dublin to Galway, an observatory along the Wild Atlantic Way where one can see the dark skies around the edge of Europe and support for the likes of Slieve League and the north west. There are many product ideas that may not be commercial in their own right and the private sector may not necessarily do them, but the State could move first and then the private sector, hotels, restaurants, attractions and so on, could follow in behind.

I agree with Deputy Troy on the VAT rate and that the analysis shows that income to the Exchequer from that VAT bracket has doubled since the rate was reduced to 9% because of the growth in tourism numbers. Regardless of job creation, from a purely Exchequer perspective, the VAT rate has been very successful because of the growth in tourism.

There are 56 recommendations within the strategy and one is that certain areas of Fáilte Ireland would benefit from a review. The industry feedback was that there are certain areas of what Fáilte Ireland does on product development or research or insights that could be improved. The view in the sector is that a review to help position and strengthen Fáilte Ireland would be beneficial and would help us achieve the 2025 targets outlined in the strategy.