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

I move to tourism. I see an allocation towards strategic tourism. It is a sector I have slight concerns about. I am from west Cork, where tourism and hospitality are the biggest indigenous employers. They are finding it difficult and are going through a tough time at the moment. Footfall from different parts of Europe appears to be down. Footfall from the UK appears to be down as well. We obviously had the debate about VAT. I know where I stood on that, but the cost of business is obviously quite high. A lot of hospitality businesses are finding it hard to make the margins to keep going and stay alive. What we really need here is a strategic approach to try to attract people from right across, to increase domestic tourism but also tourism from Europe, the US and the UK. Will the Minister comment on the overall strategy to ensure the future of a sector we are all proud of?