John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

When I became Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, I decided to establish the tourism policy review group to examine the tourism industry and ascertain how a greater degree of interaction between the relevant Departments and State agencies could be facilitated. The review group which operated successfully under the chairmanship of Mr. John Travers produced a report that contained over 70 recommendations. When I received that report, I established an implementation review group to monitor implementation of the review group's recommendations. The implementation review group has successfully engaged with Departments and agencies on their implementation. It has worked successfully with the Secretaries General of various Departments and the chief executives of various State agencies. I recently established a follow-on group to ensure the action plan was implemented. This group is monitoring implementation of the rest of the proposals from the review group's report.

I am satisfied that the sector benefits from a far greater degree of co-operation and co-operation than used to be the case. The current leader of the Fine Gael Party, Deputy Kenny, established the Tourism Council when he was Minister for Tourism and Trade. I am sure he would agree that the council did not work, unfortunately, and eventually petered out.

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