Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of the witnesses. I will begin with Ms Mayer's opening statement and her remarks about the changing face of the tourism sector. She said that people are no longer tied to urban areas but are spending time outside such areas in pursuit of the tourism offering. I wholeheartedly support that, as someone who comes from County Meath where, for decades, the main tourism sites such as the Hill of Tara and Newgrange, saw thousands of tourists put on big, shiny buses in the capital city and shipped down to Meath to enjoy the rarefied air and then they were brought back up on the bus to Dublin and the smog. They were then put into hotels and expensive restaurants. The value of the bed night and the spend in the area was lost to the good people of Meath because of the closed system of tourism operators. Of course, that has been broken by initiatives and the imagination of the sector that allows people to get out of the capital and come to Meath and to rural parts of Galway and Wexford. I agree with Ms Mayer's statement in that regard.

People will always find a way but of course, legislators can find a way to crush that as well, to crush the spirit. What we are doing here today, from my perspective, is advocating for a changed tourism offering and making sure that there is not an overburdening in respect of the legislative process; one that is happening across Europe and could permeate into here.

Ms Ní Mhurchú is aware of our engagements at previous meetings with the Departments of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Media and Sport and Housing, Local Government and Heritage, as well as with Fáilte Ireland. Did she share the enthusiasm of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and did its statements allay her fears?