Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

That did not seem to bother them. These were high-end surfers and they were blown away by the quality of waves.

Recently, I opened Woodstock Gardens and Arboretum in Inistioge, County Kilkenny. They reminded me of the Mount Congreve Gardens, Kilmeaden, County Waterford, which are world famous, but there is no coherence in marketing their tourism potential. Many bodies working in similar areas attend the Department but each of their marketing budgets are too small to have any impact. We need to have coherence between them all in marketing. If we pool the sum of all the parts we might get a much bigger bang for our buck in the international market. I have said to many of the bodies that the Department will work with them to put a coherent approach in place and ensure their marketing moneys are best used. The Department is examining how some tourism products are delivered. For example, a hotel promoting in conjunction with a garden on a regional basis would bring some coherence and a more effective marketing cost.

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