Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Andrews, Mr. Connick and Mr. Gallagher. I cannot even begin to imagine the stress that business owners - hoteliers, restaurateurs or anyone else involved in the tourism industry - are going through. It must be an incredibly stressful time, but I hope we will see a bright future. I come from west Cork, an area that is heavily reliant on tourism. There are a lot of attractions there. There was a phenomenon this year that I thought was absolutely incredible. In July, August and even into September, people were starting to discover Ireland, many of them, I think, for the very first time. They were flocking to the coast and to our beaches and were posting their experiences everywhere. They were on Instagram and Facebook. It was really eye-opening. Is there anything in this for our strategy going forward? Mention has been made of marketing strategy. Is there an opportunity here to rethink the way we do things? We always talk about how much money is spent here by international tourists. I think that was flipped on its head this year. Is there something we can learn from that for our strategy going forward? A few hotels and tourism providers experienced 10% or 15% boosts in July, August and September, which was completely unthinkable back in March. I would like someone to talk about that.

As for investment in sectors in the context of section 7 of the report, increased investment, and this relates to what I was just talking about, marine tourism really experienced a boost this year.

I want to declare an interest there as I am a former whale watching guide down in Courtmacsherry. As it is so safe, being out in the open in the fresh air, it saw a huge boost. I must mention Fungi as well at this stage - he is down in Courtmacsherry. The wildlife in the north Atlantic, which includes fin whales, humpback whales, minke whales, common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins like Fungi, is incredible. The big issue is that we do not have the marine infrastructure to support it, such as pontoons and piers. I would love to get the witnesses' opinion on that. Is there an opportunity here to invest in marine tourism? Finally, on food and restaurants, we are very proud of our food product here in Ireland. It is said that restaurants are struggling now but restaurants were struggling prior to the pandemic. I wonder is there some type of holistic solution we can incorporate. In our tourism and regional towns we see restaurants opening up then closing down and there is a turnover because the margins are just too tight and they are unsustainable. I would like a comment on that as well from whoever feels comfortable taking it.