Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I will concentrate on the areas in which there have been significant changes in spending. We now know there is no swimming pool programme as such, as we are just paying off the remaining bills on pools that were agreed some years ago. The actual amount allocated is down by €6.5 million this year. Does the Minister expect that the bills will not come in from the local authorities or groups that are building these pools, or will they be kept waiting for their money? Will this cause problems for local groups and local authorities? Will the funding be carried over until the following year or the year after that?

I have spoken about cultural infrastructure many times and I am devastated to find it is probably the area that will take the biggest hit. Despite the amount of money that has been available in the past 15 years, few of these projects have been carried out. The budget is down this year from €35 million, which was low anyway, to €19 million. The Minister mentioned a 42% drop in funding. Are there any new capital projects under the heading of cultural infrastructure?

The other big drop is in the product development allocation to Fáilte Ireland. I am sure the Minister, like all of us, has been reading the papers and has seen that our traditional attraction as a nice place to go with nice people and nice scenery is not working for us in the same way it once did. It is no wonder, as there are lots of nice places to go with nice people. We must offer people something more. I appreciate that the marketing budget has been maintained, but one must have something to market. It is very short-sighted to cut the product development budget at a time such as this when we have never needed it more. The budget has been halved. What projects, specifically, will Fáilte Ireland not be able to carry out as a result of this?

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