John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

Individual actions and measures relating to tourism promotion or development at regional level are day-to-day functions of the State tourism agencies.

As the Deputy is aware, Fáilte Ireland is proceeding with the revision of regional tourism structures and is also gearing up its own structures to line up with the proposed new arrangements at regional level. A new senior management position of director of regional development is expected to be filled shortly and a due diligence process with each of the regional tourism authorities is almost complete. Fáilte Ireland has advised me that it expects that the changes will be implemented by the end of the summer.

CSO statistics for overseas tourism for 2005 show a positive result both in terms of overseas numbers — up 6% or 400,000 additional visitors, to almost 7 million — and revenue earnings up almost 8% to €3.455 billion, excluding carrier receipts and cross Border tourism. On both counts, we are ahead of targets for the year.

As global competition intensifies and consumer preferences evolve, these results represent a robust performance by the sector and confirm how dynamic and responsive the Irish tourism sector is.

It is widely acknowledged within the tourism sector that growing the pure holiday component of the overseas tourism business has proven difficult in recent years, both at a regional and national level. In 2005, the holiday segment of all overseas travel to Ireland grew by 2.7% in revenue terms, significantly lower than the 8% overall revenue earnings growth. This clearly impacts on the holiday business at a regional level. Both Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland are working to help the industry to address the issues behind this trend, which is very much a global phenomenon.

It is also important to emphasise that the visiting friends or relatives or VFR component of the overall tourism business continues to be of immense strategic importance. It grew by more than 17% in revenue terms in 2005.

The home holiday market is an increasingly important component of the tourism business in Ireland, particularly in terms of seasonal and regional spread. Some 86% of holiday trips and 89% of holiday nights by domestic tourists are now spent outside the Dublin area. This offsets, to some extent, the relative strength of Dublin in the overseas visitors market. In 2005, expenditure on domestic tourism was up across all regions, albeit at different rates.

The fact that all regions and sectors are not benefiting to the same extent from our tourism success continues to be a matter receiving attention from my Department and the State tourism agencies as we evolve our tourism policy and programmes. I am confident, however, that the new regional tourism arrangements, with enhanced functions being put in place at local level, will help tourism to grow in the regions to a greater extent than at present. The various region-specific initiatives introduced this year by Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland Ltd. will further help to address this situation.

See this speech in context