Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

The national development plan set out ambitious targets for the tourism sector. Expenditure for tourism was to reach €800 million and for sports was to reach €991 million. I accept delivery of these targets will not happen due to the current economic circumstances. Will the plan ever be implemented? How significant will the cuts be? Were these ambitious targets just a promise from a time when collecting votes was more important? The cuts in sport have been significant for rural and urban communities which were looking forward to small capital investment in local sporting facilities. How optimistic can we be that the national development plan targets will be reached in the future?

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