Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I will get the detailed information the Deputy has requested and pass it on to him. There has been significant progress in this area. One of the most gratifying aspects of recent developments in rural tourism is the substantial increase in the number of tourists who include walking as a particular objective of their holidays. In 2003, this number was 168,000, increasing to 511,000 in 2007. I understand the figure increased again in 2008, even though the number of tourists did not increase.

The work we are doing in this area is having a significant effect in two ways. First, walking tourism has become a good news items as we move away from the confrontation and negative newspaper headlines which were destroying the industry. The second aspect is the physical development to which the Deputy referred. One of the conditions of the walkway scheme, whereby farmers are paid to maintain specific walkways, is that the National Trails Office inspects the walks and lays out the work the farmer has to do every year. He or she will not get paid unless the walk is maintained to the required standard. This is where the rural social scheme and so on are so important. In the past, we built car parks and other facilities but there was no maintenance of walkways and they went to rack and ruin. The whole thrust of what we are doing is to maintain facilities to a high standard. We must keep repairing and maintaining; that is a fundamental part of the scheme.

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