Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I join colleagues in congratulating the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cuffe, on his appointment. As Deputy Kennedy observed, the air travel tax raised €100 million over a ten-month period and is expected to bring in €125 million in a full year. That is a sizeable sum. Other countries in the European Union, namely, the United Kingdom and France, as well as Australia and New Zealand also have a travel tax in place. However, I welcome the reduction in the tax to €2 on shorter journeys. This means all Irish departures to locations such as Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow are subject to the lower rate.

Low-cost travel has been good for Ireland, and I commend all those who pioneered progress in this area. However, we should be concerned that airlines are reducing routes globally, regardless of what taxes apply. We must promote travel and tourism to this country. Visits to Ireland by non-residents were down by some 11% between January 2009 and June 2009 compared with the same period in 2008. There always will be pressure to raise revenues. When I was Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2007 and 2008, there was always pressure from the Department Finance to increase the price of a passport, for example. That proposal was resisted but the increase was eventually introduced. Our decision to waive the charge for those in receipt of a State pension was very welcome. I spoke to people today who are concerned about getting their passports renewed in view of the action by union staff. The charge for emergency passports remains at €50, but if people could get as far as the counter they would be glad to pay it and would have little concern about a travel tax. That is the situation but it begs the question as to why we have only two passport offices in Cork and Dublin. There are people from Galway contacting the Cork office to get a passport and there is a need for two extra offices in the west and the north west to process passport applications. I raised this issue as a Minister of State in 2007 and I do not believe it would be too expensive to provide these offices. It would save people long journeys if they were able to apply in their own region for a passport, which could be provided at regional airports. I have lobbied the current Minister for Foreign Affairs on this and I hope he makes further progress on it.

I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, on her new ministerial appointment. There is great tourism potential and she is a capable person who will deliver on that potential. I cannot understand why the Office of Public Works is being criticised in the Fine Gael motion because the OPW has marvellous heritage sites. Most of them will open earlier this year and the admission prices will be at the 2009 level, which I welcome.

A balance must be struck between raising revenue and reducing spending, due to the current pressures on the public finances. We have to market this country properly overseas, as Tourism Ireland has done. It did a great job for St. Patrick's Day and the fact that it fell on a Wednesday meant that we could have a longer festival. Fáilte Ireland must also be commended for a programme that encourages people to holiday at home. I hope we will get good value for consumers in Ireland. We have a lot to offer in this area and it is important that Fáilte Ireland is supported.

I look forward to the opening of the new convention centre in Dublin and the new Aviva stadium in Ballsbridge. Our Oireachtas committee went out there to see the work that was going on during the construction of these facilities.

It is encouraging to see that we are spending more money in the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism this year. There has been a 2% increase on the 2009 figure, and it is important that this €153 million funding is spent wisely. We have to promote major visitor attractions and the infrastructure for areas that have not been developed in the past, such as recreational cycling, walking, water-based activities and heritage attractions. The campaign by our tourism organisations should promote these areas and outline what can be done. A total of €44.25 million has been provided for tourism marketing in 2010 and this will increase the investment in the overseas marketing of Ireland. I hope we can get value for money in obtaining advertising space and show what can be done to promote the country.

I welcome this debate tonight. I congratulate the two Ministers mentioned and I hope we have a good tourist season in 2010.

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