Ms Geraldine Enright:

I thank the committee for this opportunity and for facilitating my participation online. I will comment on a few items that have been mentioned.

Moving to green was first to be mentioned. Our visitors and attractions have embraced sustainable tourism and devised models to sustain local communities and economies, and to protect the environment. Many of our attractions and experiences do the right thing by measuring their water, waste, energy and have made inroads in reducing them. Many of us are part of eco-tourism networks and designated areas, which are either special protection areas or part of a UNESCO geopark such as the ones in County Clare and other parts of the country. We need money to be invested in new and sustainable energy, and in providing transport facilities and infrastructure such as electric vehicle, EV, charging points.

My next point is on transport infrastructure, and the ways people travel to work and around the country have been mentioned. Transport infrastructure is a huge challenge for us. Obviously coach transport supports this by transporting groups of people around the country. We would welcome the provision of supports for coaches such as parking facilities, toilet drops, etc. because these are needed to transport groups around rural Ireland. There has been a surge in demand for public transport around the country. In County Clare, more people are looking to use sustainable transport but the network and frequency of services are not there. We would welcome investment in the provision of greater services for visitors coming into the area, and access and connection to and from the regional airports. We would also like if in future consideration was given to services that can transport staff from rural areas to their place of work because that is a challenge. I am aware that tourism businesses, visitor attractions and experiences are looking at initiatives to alleviate this situation by introducing car-pool schemes, etc.