Mr. Paul Kelly:

Absolutely. On the €3 million in fees, as soon as the Covid pandemic hit we immediately refunded to businesses any registration fees for accommodation and fees to participate in sales platforms that either we or Tourism Ireland would run. It was a tiny drop in the ocean in the context of a €6 billion revenue loss, but it was important for us to get whatever we could back to businesses.

Regarding our own funding, we repurposed about €16 million at short notice. The Government gave us a further €10 million for the adaption grant scheme. In recent weeks we launched a grant scheme for inbound agents. These are the people at the top of the funnel who bring people into Ireland who then stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, use buses and taxis etc. If these people go out of business, we lose the business they have on their books and we lose the vital relationships they have with international buyers.

We have swept up any money that we have left over in our budget and put it into a fund total of about €10 million that we will now distribute to those inbound agents. They did not qualify for CRSS and the only support they have had was the wage subsidy scheme, which is not enough to cover any of their fixed costs. We have allocated any funding we have had left over into that to help fund those businesses. Basically, any funding we have been able to get from our own resources we have prioritised giving that to businesses. In all of our work and analysis we have advocated for more Government support going into the businesses.

We have been working with Louth County Council. For a wee county, Louth is a very important part of Ireland's Ancient East offering and has some great historic assets.

The Deputy mentioned King John's Castle and so on. I am delighted to say that we will complete our destination towns project with Louth County Council in Drogheda in the second half of next year. That will further improve and enhance Drogheda's offering and appeal to tourists. It is very much on our radar. We continue to invest in the area. That is just one example of an upcoming project.