Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I acknowledge the initiative of Deputy Mitchell in introducing this motion, which is timely. In 2009, we lost almost 1 million visitors and €1 billion in associated revenue. Every market suffered a loss, including the domestic market, which is the backbone of so many of our rural tourism enterprises. It is true there was a worldwide recession, but we certainly inflicted a lot of damage on ourselves as well. The stubborn resolve of the Government to retain the €10 departure tax made matters much worse than they would otherwise have been and, as we know, caused Ryanair and Aer Lingus to reduce their short-haul services into all Irish airports.

One aspect of the tourism industry that worries me is the lack of cars available for rental this year. The number has fallen from 28,000 in 2008 to 18,000 in 2009 and perhaps 12,000 - according to some - or 10,000 this year. This will have a devastating effect on rural tourism across the country but particularly in Kerry, where there are no rail services and one needs a car to get to places such as Dingle, Kenmare, the Ring of Kerry and north Kerry. A total of 33% of American tourists - one of the main groups of tourists in Kerry - require cars. There is no doubt that the severe shortage of current-year models, particularly automatics, during last year's peak season resulted in lost business.

I will mention in the short time available some initiatives that could be taken by the Government. The Minister could extend the vehicle scrappage scheme to cover current-year ex-rentals; this was of considerable importance in the past. He could also postpone the elimination of the VRT refund, another incentive that existed in the past. Both of these could be done quite easily.

It is unfortunate that the new Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Deputy Hanafin, is not here; I know she is in the Phoenix Park. When I was in the US last week, I met officials from Tourism Ireland, who explained that in the last two years 30% of airline capacity from North America had been lost. That is a considerable amount, encompassing Aer Lingus flights from San Francisco and Washington and the US Airways flight from Shannon Airport to Philadelphia. US Airways is still flying to Dublin, but not to Shannon. I also met a travel agent in Chicago who explained to those with me, including the county manager, that fewer people are travelling to the mid-west of Ireland because there is no direct connection between Chicago and Shannon. People were coming for short holidays of four or five days but they are no longer doing so. I appeal to the Government to make approaches to Aer Lingus, Continental and other airlines servicing Ireland for 2011. The challenge we have is to fill the seats in 2010 but the Minister should make direct approaches to airlines for 2011 to restore the capacity at least to what it was two years ago.

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