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

If the witnesses do not have time to answer my questions, I would be grateful if they could provide them in writing.

I thank the witnesses for coming today and for the tremendous work they are doing in promoting Ireland. One of the successes was the "Make a Break For It" campaign, which was a major success. During July, August and September, we saw an a wonderful phenomenon of people starting to discover parts of Ireland they had never seen. Instagram lit up with images of Ireland that we had never seen before because people were discovering Ireland for the first time. It was tremendous and realised what was on their doorstep.

Have we learned lessons from that for future strategy? We must still work on the international market and getting people in from other countries. There was a worrying statistic, however, that the spending of overseas visitors compared with domestic visitors is skewed. Is there now an opportunity to address this and build on the success of the "Make a Break For It" campaign and the wonderful experience people had in July, August and September?

That is my first question. I would love to hear if there is a strategy in that regard.

The success of the Wild Atlantic Way, which is a Fáilte Ireland strategy, has been amazing. I can attest to that first-hand being from west Cork. Huge credit is due for that. I want to ask Mr. Kelly about the breaking up of the Wild Atlantic Way into regions. For example, an effort is being made to break up west Cork, where I am from, and rename and remarket it as the Haven Coast. I warn against doing that because west Cork is a unique brand in itself. It has a unique culture and unique food, and as we can see from the Old Head at Kinsale there behind Ms De Saulles, the scenery is phenomenal. There is already a brand there and I would be worried about reinventing the wheel. I ask that we stay away from that type of rebranding and stick with what is already there. West Cork is a brand in itself.

The backdrop behind Ms De Saulles is the Old Head at Kinsale. About 4 or 5 miles off that, right now, are the most incredible megafauna and marine wildlife to be seen anywhere in the world. I must declare an interest here. I was formerly a whale watching guide in Courtmacsherry, which is only approximately 7 miles from where Ms De Saulle is. The marine wildlife off the coast of west Cork is absolutely phenomenal. There are fin whales, which are the second largest whale species that has ever lived, humpback whales, common dolphins, minke whales and basking sharks. It is unbelievable. During July, August and September, people realised for the first time that they had this on their doorstep. I am not sure Fáilte Ireland or Tourism Ireland recognise that and I would like them to take that criticism on board. I am not seeing it in a big way. There should be a much bigger push because the whale watching in Ireland is among the best on the planet in terms of the number of species one can see. It is a bit nippy and cold but if people dress up they can have an absolutely amazing experience. That is something I would like to see addressed in future strategies.

I will make one final point and hopefully there will be a second round of questions. I refer to the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS. The witnesses cannot answer this directly but I would love to know if they have had feedback from their members. We are getting a lot of contact and phone calls from businesses, and hotels in particular, that have had their CRSS withdrawn under level 3. This is a backward move. My understanding of the legislation is that where there are restrictions to accessing a business, it should be able to avail of the CRSS and there are still countywide restrictions in place. Take a smaller county like Carlow, for example. People there cannot rely only on business from within their county. That needs to be reversed, at least up until 18 December.

I have only left the witnesses with 25 seconds to respond but there will hopefully be a second round because I have other questions as well. If they could elaborate on any of those issues, it would be great. I ask Mr. Kelly to address the strategies, the Haven Coast idea in the context of west Cork and so on.