Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome.

I will be straight up. I will be using my tourism head. I am hugely concerned for the industry. I am looking at the figures dropping and what people are spending dropping and I am concerned about where we are going. In 2019, we had 10.9 million visitors and in 2023 we had 6.3 million visitors. In any other industry, those figures would simply be shocking. The reason for them in my experience is rising costs. There is uncertainty in the global economic situation but that is being emphasised too much. I am looking at the figures for Poland and other countries in Europe and they are increasing. There is a perceived lack of value in Ireland. I would not mind getting a response to that.

Second, on the industry in general, how many hotels have been built outside Dublin in the past ten years? I asked a question about that, but I still do not have a correct answer. I know it is under a dozen. It is simply not viable to build a hotel in the current economic climate. I am here today appealing for a mechanism we can work with. The developers are there. I am looking at a project in Courtown, County Wexford. Planning permission has been applied for but I spoke to the developer and he is uneasy about going forward with the project because he says the cost of building a hotel is uneconomical in the climate. I spoke to another hotelier in Wexford town who waited for planning permission for approximately 15 years. He got planning permission, but in the end he bought another hotel because it was ten times less hassle and half the cost. We have an issue. We have to get tourists. We have the issue of getting the numbers up again, but we also have to increase the product, especially outside Dublin. I would be interested in the Minister's points on that.