Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Yes. It was €50 million support planned for the upgrading of and presentation to the best international standard of approximately 20 of our most strategically important existing visitor attractions, heritage and so on. I know a large number of people are not investing currently but some are. Will this scheme go ahead? These people believe they are limbo? They had prepared applications for funding and now find they do not know whether it will go ahead.

I realise there will be less money for everything and that the national development plan is a bit of a myth at this stage. If there is not be the kind of money we thought there would be for investment, perhaps it is a reason to try to refocus efforts on and repackage what we have.

Earlier I spoke about Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. I am not undermining their marketing. The Minister said they put great effort into marketing and I do not deny that but perhaps they need to change what they have been doing. I refer to products such as the gardens of Ireland which are not marketed. It is a huge growth industry but there is no way to market them. The garden owners are gardeners and are not able to put together clusters of gardens and sell them as a tour. They do not have that kind of expertise. That is where Fáilte Ireland should step in and use what money we have, although I accept we will not have the capital money we had in the past, to try to promote and help individuals.

The Minister mentioned surfing, for which Ireland is famous. However, there is nothing in terms of marketing. When people go to tour operators in Frankfurt or elsewhere, they are sold Irish hotels. It is not based on what one does when one gets to the hotel, that is, a package of activities which is what people want, but on where we have good hotels. There are good hotels everywhere in the world. We must have something unique.

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