Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for the opportunity to present details of the Supplementary Estimate for my Department. As the committee will be aware, in 2019, as the Government advanced its original preparations for the risk of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October, supplementary funds were not available for new initiatives or programmes. However, the Department has successfully secured funds to support its ongoing work in some key areas. As a result, €10 million has been agreed with the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, to boost investment across the transport, tourism and sport sectors. The €10 million is being allocated as current expenditure, primarily in the two programme areas of public transport and tourism. The Estimates for 2019 already provide an overall current allocation to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport of €755 million. This additional money will now bring the total allocation to €765 million. Our total allocation is used to provide vital tourism investment, as well as to support the ongoing delivery of the remit of the National Transport Authority, NTA.

I will briefly go through the areas receiving this additional money. As part of the land transport programme, in the public transport area, €617,000 has been allocated to the Medical Bureau of Road Safety. This is to fund an estimate of €308,000 in pensions non-pay which arose during the re-profiling of the pension estimate in 2018 from pay to non-pay. Some €309,000 is to assist in the purchase during 2019 of preliminary breath test devices used by An Garda Síochána to test drivers for alcohol consumption. A sum of €583,000 has been allocated to the NTA to purchase approximately 325,000 anonymous Leap cards to ensure that sufficient stocks are in place early next year. A further €1 million has been provided to the NTA, with €100,000 being allocated for additional general administrative expenditure, €450,000 for ICT infrastructure licensing and system updates, and €450,000 for rental costs associated with additional accommodation. Those costs are required to be paid in advance under the terms of the rental contracts.

Turning to the sports programme, some €800,000 is being allocated to Sport Ireland for high performance sport. This funding will be used to assist athletes’ preparations for major competitions, including the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo and key World and European Championship events. In the tourism programme, €1 million will be spent by Fáilte Ireland on domestic marketing, with a particular focus on the Border counties. This marketing will include social media campaign engagement with Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland consumers, data analytics on Northern Ireland consumers, a domestic print campaign and a local expert programme supporting Border counties. Some €6 million will be spent by Tourism Ireland on a programme of reassurance concerning Ireland as a tourist destination, given the uncertainties raised by Brexit. The new deadline for Brexit means that the UK can still leave with no-deal if the withdrawal agreement with the EU is not ratified by the British Parliament by 31 January 2020. As a result, it is vital that my Department continues to take steps to provide as much certainty as possible in our tourist markets.