Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the Deputy's experience in the sector. It is critical that the sector is now under the Department of enterprise because there is a huge amount of work we can carry out to support it.

I will point out that 2024 was a record year for tourism as regards visitor numbers. The North American market was up 19% alone, with €2.2 billion of spend. This year has been challenging and one of the key reasons is the airport cap. We had a reduction of approximately 10% in seats until May. We will now see, I hope, 11% additional seats in the North American market. Three new gateways, namely, Indianapolis, Nashville and Detroit, have come on stream. To put figures behind that, potentially we will have 1.5 million additional seats in the marketplace for the last three quarters of the year, which should be significant.

The vision I have is first to refresh a strategy for tourism with a number of components to it. The first is to build up the SME sector. We need to look at tertiary education as well in order that people can have valuable, viable careers and build up the authenticity Ireland has. That is important for the sector. We will try to move away from State contracts, which we have been doing. We are down to 7% at this time from a high of more than 20% at one point. We are making steady progress in that. At this time, 7,050 bed spaces in hotels are under construction, 5,000 of which are in Dublin. It is an area we need to see significant progress in because we are all too aware of how much of a challenge it is in the value proposition or offering of many provincial towns for the commercial equation to work. We will therefore be having discussions across the Government in connection with that.

Another ideas I have is to develop a national all-Ireland food strategy. We have seen significant pressure in the European market, but North America is holding up well and the UK is potentially also. It is the European market that is under pressure. We need additional value for it because there is a huge challenge in ensuring our food offering is strong. We can do a lot more by having an all-Ireland food strategy.

The business events strategy was launched this year as well. It is another important sector in which we can make significant progress. I will expand the remit of Fáilte Ireland to include a responsibility for developing the restaurant sector. Heretofore, it was exclusively focused on hotels. If we widen its ambit, it will develop the business model and the key attractiveness of that sector. We can do a lot of work there. It will have key performance indicators at the heart of tourism sector for the first time. That is the journey I would like to bring it on.