Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport

10:40 am

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Paschal Donohoe to discuss the mid-year review of the Estimates for transport, tourism and sport - Vote 31. The purpose of this morning’s session is to engage with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in order to assist the committee in undertaking a mid-year review of the position on outputs and expenditure with particular reference to performance measurements in regard to Vote 31 for the year ended 31 December 2015.

The Minister will assist the committee in its consideration of improvements that may be desirable regarding the performance information included in the unabridged Estimate. The Minister might also brief the committee on the emerging position in order that this committee might participate in the 2016 Estimates discussions in advance of allocations being finalised. The committee welcomes the Minister.

I draw the attention of the witnesses to the fact that, by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. However, if they are directed by the Chairman to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that where possible, they should not criticise nor make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. I also advise that any submission or opening statements made to the committee will be published on the committee website after this meeting. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

Can the Minister indicate the position on the New Zealand guidance in setting output based performance targets? The committee understands that had been the basis for discussion between the Department staff and the committee for the last number of months. I refer to the guidance included as appendices to the briefing materials circulated. The committee understands that the Department may have issues with how the guidance is being applied to the performance measures it has included in the Estimates. Can it be established whether the Department has issues with the guidance itself?

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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No we do not. The table to which the Vice Chairman refers is the departmental output table of 2015. It lists all of the different outputs by all elements of my Department. I believe an evaluation has been done as to whether they are specific, measurable or relevant. My own observation is, as Minister heading into the next Estimates process, that I believe there is an opportunity to make them even more output focused. I will give the committee a small example of what I mean. If we were to look at the figures on the sustainable development of airports or the outputs in public transport in the future, we need to have figures on the number of people who use public transport or the number of people who use different airports. I will now turn to the figures on tourism. We are increasingly moving towards looking at the spend by tourists to Ireland, alongside the numbers of tourists. These are the measures the Department and I use to evaluate our performance. It would be helpful for the coming 12 months if those things converged with the measures in the Estimates process.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister and I welcome his statement in which he and his Department accept the necessity for improved performance output around documentation and I welcome the willingness to try to improve. If we as a Parliament can work with Departments like the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport we will all benefit in the long run.

Regarding the output measures and the associated targets to be included in the Estimates, in some cases they are not specific enough to be meaningful. The Minister addressed this when he spoke about the airport example. I suggest the implementation of recommended actions in accordance with stated milestones. While that is aspirational, it needs to be contextualised. On the plan to continue work on smarter travel projects, it becomes very difficult to measure what the output ultimately is in that regard. I am not being critical and I do not look for a direct answer other than an engagement that says this is where we need to get to.

The desire to develop the Wild Atlantic Way discovery points is a vision which becomes difficult to measure in terms of the output. It would help if there was a more specific aim, for example, to develop four of the Wild Atlantic Way discovery points over the next 12 months. Or, regarding smarter travel, it would help to identify two or three projects which could be delivered within a time-frame. It may make it easier, for those of us on this side of the table, to hold the Minister and his Department to account on where things fall between the cracks. If we can get this right over a period of time it will serve the country better in the long run because it will mean that all of us are more keenly focused on how money is spent if it does get spent. The Minister will not be left in the difficult situation at the end of the year of having money left over from various projects that he is then in a position to spend on other pet projects in the run-up to an election.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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There is fairness in what the Deputy has said, however some of the measurements that are included go in the direction of being very output focused. I draw the committee’s attention to section C of the Estimates and the issue of ports. It indicates the number of ports and seafarers to be inspected. If one looks at section D and sports it states that Sport Ireland legislation is to be published, and there are measures about the distribution of funding for local authority swimming pools. These are specific proposals. There is opportunity to make more progress on making them even more output focused on elements that are not related to legislation because legislation is binary in that it is either published or it is not, it is either enacted or it is not. However, we can track how many people come to Ireland, how they spend when they come here and the duration of their stay. This is the sort of data that Tourism Ireland tracks and upon which it reports back to my Department. It is in all of our interests that we include this data when one looks at how my Department and I perform.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. I will suggest to the Chairman in due course that there be an opportunity for a sub-committee of this committee, made up of the spokespersons for the various parties, to engage with the Department officials and to go through in more detail some of the issues that arise and to find a more common platform. Today is a welcome development but it might be better to sit down and agree some framework for the future so that there is no ambiguity at the end of this process. The Minister might be Taoiseach by next year.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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My objective is to remain here.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Whoever-----

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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That is all I am worried about. The Deputy is far more likely than I to achieve that objective.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I do not know about that. The Minister must have different polls than I have. That is a suggestion that we might look at that so that the committee could engage more fully in a more convivial environment rather than across a committee room, and agree the template for the long term.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I think that is fair enough. I believe that some of the measurements here do what the Deputy and the committee want. What the committee has asked of the Department is fair. I believe that other measurements could be clearer. That is my responsibility. There are parts on which I would resist the committee. If I look at tourism, measurement number one is to agree 2013 business plan for implementation by tourism agencies. The committee has said that this is not specific but I argue that it is pretty specific. The committee says it is not measurable and I could argue about that. It is certainly relevant, yet the committee has said that it is not. If we make things more specific it will be possible to make a more careful evaluation of whether they are being delivered or are on track, or not delivered as the case is. There are things here that the committee has an N-rating against, for example, to finalise a new detailed tourism strategy and action to be applied by year end. Our tourism strategy is developed and the action plan is underway.

Photo of Dessie EllisDessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister. Does the Minister consider that the way he judges performance and targets is sufficient? We have talked about the New Zealand guidelines. Does the Minister consider that it is necessary to monitor the performance in a similar way, to review the targets at the end of the year, and to be targeted in what the Department does? It is easy to judge in sport if something is working or if an athlete is performing or otherwise but how is the overall picture in sport measured? Is it measured by achievements or by the amount of money the Department gives and the value it gets for it?

I have the same question about the road networks. Do we measure it in terms of performance and the percentage we have achieved in terms of the budget that we provided for those roads? Is that how the Minister looks at it or does he just look at whether he got this project done or this maintenance done?

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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It is a mixture. I am clear within my own Department what my priorities are. When I came into office those objectives were published. I meet every month with the management boards of the Department and we review where we are with the priorities that we have set. That is partly by virtue of necessity because there are so many different things going on within my Department that I have to be very clear on what the particular matters are that I believe are important to the country and that I want to make happen. I have a list against which I evaluate where we stand on different matters but other things happen that take up one's time and energy and can sometimes get in the way of priorities. For me, that is more of an argument as to why clear priorities are needed in the first place. One can always be taken off course by events.

On the Deputy's question on how we evaluate things - it depends on the policy area. I will give the example of sport. The Deputy is correct about how we evaluate the output in sport. One of the outputs that we track is the number of medals that national athletes win. We look at that every year. That tracking is done by the Irish Sports Council. We also track levels of participation in sport. Much of the work that the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar has underway on Healthy Ireland will allow us to get outputs and look at the number of people by age group who participate in sport. This has led to one insight for me that I feel strongly about, which is how we drive sporting participation, particularly among more disadvantaged communities. That is something that has only emerged from looking at the outputs from sport. Outputs will vary and will depend on what part of the Department we look at.

If we look at new roads projects, it is as simple as asking if the project is funded. Where does it stand in the planning process? Has work begun on it? When will the project open? If we look at maintenance, I would track that through the amount of funding that we make available to local authorities to help them replenish and sustain roads that are already there. That is how we would look at that.

I have already touched on the question of tourism. Another area of transport is sustainable and smarter travel. We track the number of people using public transport and the numbers and trends. For example, we track how many people use Leap cards. These are all very carefully looked at by me and my officials who work in the area.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I apologise for not calling Deputy O'Donovan earlier.

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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That is fine. I welcome the Minister and his officials. As we are discussing outputs and measureables, one of the important things to note is the announcement made by the Minister on 29 September 2015. From my region and the mid-western region, the outputs are very clear in terms of the commitment made by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I acknowledge the work the Minister has done on the ports and specifically the port in my constituency, the Shannon Foynes Port Company, and the decision the Minister's Department has made to link it to the national road network, which is hugely important.

I welcome the decision of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, after years of waiting and years of the Celtic tiger and many missed opportunities, to finally proceed with a bypass of Adare in County Limerick. That is hugely important for the local economy and a measurable outcome.

I have brought the policy of festival grant aids to the Minister's attention before. The Department's policy states that it has to be quantified on bednights. My colleague, Deputy Griffin knows it is very easy for south Kerry people to quantify bednights with the infrastructure that is available.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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We will discuss this in the second session. The purpose of this session is to deal with performance measures.

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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The performance measures I am concerned with are the number of people who come to festivals, the number of people who visit the country and the number of people who avail of the tourism product. That is the measurable outcome. It is very difficult to measure in parts of the country where the infrastructure is not in place. I have identified issues before on this. There is an in-built unfairness in how the current structure is managed because one will see the same old faces year in, year out getting a leg-up from the Department while new people in parts of the country where the infrastructure is not as developed are left out.

That is something that, on the basis of fairness, the Minister should look at when he has an opportunity. There is a measurable there. I stayed in Ireland this year on holidays and if one goes into a hotel, as I did in Donegal, and asks them what the difference is this year, they will say two things. The first is the 9% VAT rate, which has made a massive difference to them. The second is a very simple concept but something that has been hugely welcomed in that part of the country - the Wild Atlantic Way. A series of signposts has brought people, for example, from my part of the country, Limerick, into county Donegal where they might not have thought of holidaying before. It is a measurable outcome.

There are aspects of the tourism policy on which more could be done. There are areas that have mountains, the Ring of Kerry, lakes and fantastic scenery and there is a fantastic product there but there are other parts of the country with an equally good product which have difficulty in accessing the basic levels of support that the Department makes available through Fáilte Ireland.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Before I call the Minister to respond, we have to suspend for a vote. I will call him to respond when we reconvene.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Vice Chairman.

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister.

Sitting suspended at 11.41 a.m. and resumed at 11.58 a.m.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I call the meeting to order. The Minister will reply to Deputy O'Donovan's questions.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy and will reply to the questions he has put to me. The first one is on the two roads that the Deputy referred to, the Shannon Foynes road and the Adare bypass road. I know as well as the Deputy where those projects stand at the moment. They both face journeys in the planning process and so on, but I believe it is important that yesterday I and the Government made clear our support for those projects in the long run. It will take time for them to move forward. I am familiar, as the Deputy is, with the history of the Adare bypass and everything that has gone on but it is important that the Government has indicated that strategically it believes that these projects have to happen. When they move to their respective planning and tendering processes, we will be committed to finding a way to make them happen.

The Deputy has talked about tourism and about festivals, in particular. He met with members of my office about that recently and I was briefed on it. I know where the Deputy is coming from in the sense that there are some larger festivals at the moment that command a fair bit of support. I will differ gently with the Deputy and say that we do not give a leg-up to anybody and we certainly do not give a leg-up to any familiar faces. We look carefully at how money is spent and we have changed the amount of money that we have made available to particular festivals on the basis of how we believe they perform. I accept the Deputy's point that new festivals that are trying to get up and running cannot provide the track record of how they performed in the past because they did not exist. That is to state the obvious. This is something that I will discuss with Fáilte Ireland to see if there is any way of dealing with this.

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Chairman, some festivals are national institutions. No matter what Minister is in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, if he or she were not seen to support these festivals there would be blue murder. There are some festivals that make a significant contribution to the economy but might not be as well known as the household names, and they are at a major disadvantage. The household names have the Department where they want them. What will happen on the day somebody cuts their funding or the day a festival that has been running for 50 years is asked to wash its face? The Minister knows as well as I do what would happen. I am asking for a level playing field. At some stage, 50 years after they were founded, might some of the festivals be asked whether they can do this on their own?

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy knows, there is always blue murder about different matters. That is just the nature of the jobs we do. If one looks at the support for the festival programmes and at the support that many of the larger festivals get, one will see that the funding they receive from the Department through Fáilte Ireland has been substantially reduced. We are challenging festival and sporting events constantly to identify additional sources of funding. That is the truth. However, I hear where the Deputy is coming from, particularly in terms of new festivals and programmes that are looking to establish themselves. I will ask Fáilte Ireland to look at this issue. As I know the Deputy is interested in the issue, my office will revert to him.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I call Deputy Fleming. Let me remind members that we are dealing with performance measures for the 2015 Estimates. In the second part of the meeting we will deal with general questions.

Photo of Tom FlemingTom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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I wish to ask about maintenance funds for our existing national road network - our primary, national secondary and regional routes, as well as the tertiary and local rural roads. I am disappointed that the Killarney to Farranfore route has been omitted from the capital plan. Is it possible to have this route added to the capital plan at this late stage? The gridlock in Killarney is well known and has an impact on tourism as well as on commuters who are trying to access other areas in the county. It is very detrimental to the local economy. There is only one way of addressing the significant bottleneck resulting from the uplift in the economy, with increasing traffic and heavier vehicles using that particular route between Killarney and Tralee. I am most disappointed with this omission, because the groundwork has been done and the project is shovel-ready. The plans were put on display in Killarney for public consultation some 15 years ago, and we were very optimistic that this would proceed within four to five years. With the downward trend and collapse of the economy it was put on the back burner. That project should be examined as a matter of urgency. I ask the Minister, who has responsibility for tourism as well as transport, to go back to the Cabinet to have this project included, because of the significant investment in preparations for the project.

The development of the Wild Atlantic Way has increased visitor numbers and generated additional moneys. I wonder if a proportion of the additional revenue generated from the Wild Atlantic Way will be used to improve the infrastructure and the community facilities on this route. That is only right and fitting. There is also a need to consider the omission of panoramic scenic roads on the seashore, such as the road from Tralee to Clochán on the Dingle peninsula. Deputy Brendan Griffin was very involved with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring, in having the Clochán peninsula included. Such deficiencies need to be corrected. This should be put right over the next couple of years. For many of the communities along the route tourism is a new concept, as in the past their areas were not marketed. Now, with the major influx of tourists, services need to be expanded. There is a need for community groups to get together to service the influx - for example, by providing parking areas for camper vans.

The old country pubs are a major part of the culture and tourism product. We need to look at pubs that are in danger of closing because their owners are finding it difficult to sustain them. We also need to look at the internal transport system, as many remote areas need to have better access to transport. I raised the issue of hackney licences with the Minister last week, as people are finding it difficult to get a hackney licences.

The IFA raised issues arising from the abolition of the milk quota and the impact it will have on rural roads, with the transport of milk from the farm gate to the co-operative in heavier tankers. Rural roads on the western seaboard are deteriorating due to adverse weather conditions, with some areas getting twice the rainfall that Dublin gets.

On the N72, which is gateway from Cork to Killarney, there are a number of acute bends near the railway bridges at Rathmore. The National Roads Authority, in conjunction with Iarnród Éireann, needs to straighten out the road at these railway passings.

Deputy Griffin and I are very much aware of-----

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Is this about performance measurement? That is what this session is supposed to be about.

Photo of Tom FlemingTom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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Small bus contractors have been outbid in the procurement system by a local transport group that is in receipt of State subsidies. They are finding it very hard to comprehend why they are losing all the contracts and they are very concerned that they will be put out of business. This matter was raised numerous times over the summer. We hope the Minister will be able to intercede in some way.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising a number of points. First, I will deal the capital spend and the percentage we are investing in regional and local roads. Out of €10 billion programme that I announced yesterday afternoon, some €2.4 billion is for regional and local roads.

When I was drawing up the announcement that was made yesterday, I first gave priority to rebalancing our expenditure in favour of making sure that over time, we have enough money to maintain what we have. I then looked to identify a small number of additional new roads projects that will make a big contribution to the three priorities I have outlined all year - removing bottlenecks to access to ports, airports and job creation, facilitating regional connectivity and dealing with the issue of congestion.

I appreciate what the Deputy is saying regarding his disappointment about the failure to include the road he has mentioned but I had to make choices all over the country in regard to what we could and could not go ahead with. While I accept his disappointment about the failure to make provision for a route through Killarney, I remind him that we have met other priorities in his county. For example, we have recognised the need to support the road in Dingle at some point in the future. We gave a very clear commitment yesterday to the development of the road between Baile Bhúirne and Macroom. The development of the road in question, in the interests of improving connectivity between County Kerry and Cork city, is a long-standing issue that Deputy Griffin has been raising with me for well over a year. We have not been able to do everything that people would like us to do. That is a reflection of the need to continue to make choices about how we spend the money that is available now and in the future.

I would like to respond to the points that the Deputy made regarding tourism. He spoke about the whole idea of reinvesting back into the development of the Wild Atlantic Way. We are already working hard to do that. Earlier this month, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, outlined details of a new programme to develop between 145 and 150 information points that are located all along the Wild Atlantic Way. This is being done to try to provide better experiences for those who visit the locations in question. We now have plans in place for four signature discovery points. This work is under way. Over time, we will continue to upgrade the experiences that exist along the Wild Atlantic Way, based on the money we have at our disposal. The Deputy made a point about infrastructure along the Wild Atlantic Way. We have not been able to make progress with any additional roads in County Kerry other than the two major projects I have already mentioned. We are looking to make progress elsewhere along the route. For example, we are seeking to make a contribution to the route along the N59 in County Donegal.

The Deputy raised the question of hackney licences with me in the Dáil last week. I understand the NTA has been in contact with Deputies on this matter in the last year. I know that people want the area of knowledge to be below the county level. However, the NTA is strongly of the view that this would give rise to many other difficulties. For example, there might be people who are very well qualified to drive within a particular cluster of communities but are not qualified to drive beyond that. It is for that reason that the NTA is of the view that at the moment, we should not change the licensing regime, which I support.

The Deputy also made a point about the effect of the abolition of milk quotas on regional roads. I remind him that €2.4 billion of the €4.9 billion we are investing in the maintenance of existing roads will be spent on regional and local roads.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. Are there any further questions on the performance measures? If not, we can move on to the second part of this meeting. Deputy Griffin has indicated.

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for coming to this meeting. It would be remiss of me not to thank him for yesterday's announcement regarding the N22 road between Macroom and Baile Bhúirne, which is great news for the Kerry constituency and the south-west region. I think it is a game-changer. It will be the greatest socioeconomic development for Kerry in many years. I would also like to mention the N69, the Adare bypass and the Dingle relief road. They comprise a great suite of measures for County Kerry. I would like to express gratitude on behalf of the people of Kerry. Yesterday was a very good day for the county, after many dark years.

The Minister is aware that I have been raising the need to try to boost winter tourism for many years. I believe we have an excellent opportunity to boost visitor numbers to Ireland in the shoulder months. I suggest that the Wild Atlantic Way is an excellent vehicle in this regard. We should market that product as a winter experience as much as a summer experience. I have always used the example of standing on Slea Head looking out to the Atlantic in January, as distinct from July. I think people should be coming from all over the world to experience the ferocious wilderness and invigorating energy of the sea in months like January. Having previously raised this issue in parliamentary questions and received responses from the Minister, I know that extra expenditure was provided in 2015 to try to market the shoulder months and the winter months. Do we have any update on how that it going? Are we getting a worthwhile return on our efforts to boost off-peak visitor numbers? Do we need to put more money in? Is there a tipping point that needs to be reached so that a real impact can be made? I suppose I am looking for as much data as possible on that.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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We have made additional funding available to support longer advertising campaigns through Tourism Ireland. We are trying to get additional vacations and holidays into Ireland at points of the year when we have the capacity to facilitate them. I will explain how it is working at the moment. I suppose we are in the off-season, or the off-shoulder period, now. We will have to see how it is going to perform. It is clear that the investment we have made in tourism to date is yielding extraordinary results. If I recall correctly, the visitor figures that were released yesterday show that there has been an increase of between 13% and 15% in the number of visitors to Ireland so far this year. I have every reason to believe we will finish this year with a double-digit increase in the number of people coming to Ireland. When we deliver that figure, I expect that we will see an increase of between 5% and 10% for the off-shoulder period compared with a year ago.

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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In fairness, that would be a very good return. I understand that we are on course to break all records from a tourism point of view. It is fantastic. It is clear to me, as someone who comes from a tourism county, that large numbers of tourists have been in the country this year. That is really encouraging in counties like Kerry. I suggest we can try to make this more sustainable by spreading it into the winter months as much as we can. Unfortunately, people are traditionally laid off during the winter because of the seasonal nature of tourism. It is something we could be cognisant of in future. We could put more effort into it. We should try to continue the existing efforts to boost activity in the winter months. We should see if we can do something about this aspect of the matter. I have looked at other countries. I am aware that efforts are being made in this regard already. It seems to be something that has been pushed by Scotland in the last couple of years. The figures have been quite good there as well. We should try to keep this issue on the agenda. I reiterate that it has been a good tourism season. I acknowledge the extent to which Government policy on tourism has shaped results in this industry.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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It is clear there are no more questions on performance measures. Before we move on to the second session, I would like to know whether the Minister and his officials accept that there is room for improvement in the performance measures. Perhaps this has been covered already. Will the Minister and his officials engage with the Oireachtas secretariat to identify improvements in those measures?

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Yes, we will. We are coming off a decent base in terms of the breadth of indicators we have and how specific some of them are. There is an opportunity to do this more effectively in the future. As we are doing it we will also need a bit more clarity regarding the adjudication of the Oireachtas on the specific measurable and relevant columns.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. Does the committee agree to meet again to consider a report on the progress that has been made? Agreed. Will we will move on to the second session?

Photo of Terry BrennanTerry Brennan (Fine Gael)
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I would just like to make a comment. It would be remiss of me not to congratulate the Minister, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, and all their staff. Tourism has been a tremendous success story over the last four or five years. A large number of jobs have been created. There have been benefits to the economy. Many overseas visitors have come here.

It is a great success story and is no doubt due to issues the Minister raised, such as the reduction in VAT and the cessation of the €3 per passenger departing from an airport.

I will comment on the greenways. I come from a town that has a magnificent greenway. Unfortunately, it starts not in the town of Carlingford, but at the marine which is approximately 400 yd. north of Carlingford on the sea. That greenway is being used throughout the year. It is encouraging visitors at weekends to come and stay in Carlingford and in the villages of Omeath. Both towns have benefited greatly from the greenway. It is proposed to extend it, to Omeath and on to Newry, and eventually, perhaps not in my day, to Portadown along the Clanrye river. It has been encouraged by Newry and Mourne District Council. I would emphasis the greenways anywhere they are and congratulate the landowners involved, through whose co-operation this has happened. I invite the Minister to look at this greenway from Carlingford to Omeath, with a view to extending it from the marina to King John's Castle on the pier in Carlingford along the sea. It would have to be built up on stilts - I have seen one in Portugal done similarly. As far as greenways in part my of the world are concerned, it would be the jewel in the crown. I thank the Minister for his efforts.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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We are moving on to session 2 and a lot of the issues have already been covered. Does the Minister want to deliver his report or will we take it as read and circulate it?

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The committee already has a copy of my statement. We have probably covered the second session fully already, maybe more so than the first.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Despite my efforts to confine it to that.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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We have to start somewhere. We have covered all of that. As the committee already has a copy of the statement and it has been circulated, if I may, I might make reference to one or two areas that were not covered in our earlier session.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Okay.

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I might say a word about aviation and maritime, and then a bit about sports, maybe, for four or five minutes, because these are very important areas which were not covered earlier to the degree one would want.

On aviation, I draw the committee's attention to the fact that we published the country's first ever national aviation policy in August. It contains 73 actions, all of which reflect my view that aviation and our airports are not a consequence, but a cause, of economic growth. If one looks at what is happening in all of the airports at present, if one looks at the engagement that this Government has had with the aviation sector, it has brought more jobs into Ireland, it has brought more tourists into Ireland and it has developed a platform for our country to grow sustainably in the future. By 2020, we believe, Irish airports will handle approximately 33 million passengers per year.

In that document, I guess there are only two points I would want to emphasise. The first is that the number one policy that underpins everything we would do in aviation is safety and security. That is the bedrock upon which we grow our access to the rest of the world. We have placed considerable focus on how we can grow connectivity, how we can grow competition on key routes into Ireland and how we can support the State and regional airports. There are different steps against different airports, depending on their nature. Each of the State airports, which, as the committee will be aware, are Dublin, Cork and Shannon, have clear plans regarding how they want to develop in the future. For the regional airports, one of which is in Deputy Griffin's constituency, I am pleased to be able to say that earlier in the year we published the regional airport plan, which outlines the supports that we want to give to regional airports between 2015 and 2019 and outlines the legal framework within which we need to make those supports available and that has now been agreed with the European Commission. The next phase, in aviation, will be setting in place the national aviation development forum, which will be a broad group of stakeholders across the sector which we will use to consult as we look to develop Irish aviation in the future.

On maritime, there are two sections to which I would draw the committee's attention. The first is the status of the Harbours Bill 2015, which has completed Second Stage in the Dáil and will shortly come here for Committee Stage consideration. I believe this is the most important legislation on the ports sector for decades and I look forward to working with the committee to ensure its enactment. I also launched, earlier this year, the new national maritime safety strategy, which concludes 33 actions to make the maritime sector, our seas and rivers, as safe as possible.

I continue to place considerable value on the Irish Coast Guard and the work that my Department has done in upgrading the fleet of helicopters available to it. The deployment of new Sikorsky helicopters gives them tools that will significantly improve the already great service that they can deliver. With the services and technology available through Valentia Island and the work that the Irish Coast Guard has done there, it now has the ability to cover the breadth of Ireland. It is a sign of the support the Government has given them.

On sports, I merely want to underscore the importance of the setting up of the Sports Ireland organisation. The Bill in that regard has now been enacted. I also note that work is already under way on the national indoor arena in the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown and in supporting our athletes as they get ready for the Olympics in Rio in 2016.

We will never have the money needed to support everything that everybody wants us to do but I believe, across my Department, we are making steady progress in areas that will be to the benefit of the country in the long run.

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for coming to and engaging with the committee.

The joint committee adjourned at 12.30 p.m. until 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 7 October 2015.