Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

-----and I am sure we will continue in that regard.

To me, tourism is a vital cog in the economy as I come from a county which benefits from the level of tourism activity, whether it be through the airport or through the many tourism facilities and products. The Deputies across the way, as two Clare persons, will be familiar with the facilities that we have in the county.

There is a domestic and an overseas component to tourism and often the capacity of overseas tourism in terms of inward investment is underestimated. We spend much time talking about trying to ensure we get foreign direct investment to support job creation. Tourism does that in a benign, but yet important, way in maintaining people in their local communities and we must focus much more on attracting people to this country and encouraging people to stay here.

The downturn in our economy will resolve the domestic component of it. People will not be as anxious to take the weekend breaks that were available through low fares. While the exit from the country was relatively cheap, it was not cheap to visit well-known tourism destinations such as Barcelona for the weekend. There is a greater realisation among the public now that one can have a good time at home. One can retain money in the economy and still have a good time.

We have a job to do, even in convincing the media. I was taken aback when the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, was appointed to her current post and the media tried to suggest it was a downgrading, a demotion, of her role. It was nothing like that. It was a recognition that somebody with her stature and skill was needed to deal with an important component of the economy. She has taken up that challenge and is working extremely well with it, and we look forward to seeing many more of her initiatives in terms of ensuring that vital part of our economy is exploited to a much greater extent. The exploitation that must come forward here is the development of our tourism product. We go back to the great innovators of the past and look to persons such as Dr. Brendan O'Regan, with whom many would be familiar, who was instrumental in developing many of the attractions within the Shannon region. I refer to the Bunratty Folk Park, the medieval experience at Bunratty Castle, the development of the Old Ground Hotel and other iconic projects that attracted people to these shores. That was then and this is now. We must stop trying to sweat the asset that is already there. Places such as the Cliffs of Moher are well recognised. The various different experiences that have been around for some time are well recognised on the world stage. We must be innovative. We must put money behind the development of a new wave of product to attract people to this country. We must, in my view, carry out a needs analysis of our tourism product. We must look to existing and emerging trends in what attracts people to travel to various locations, and we must put money behind that.

We must then create competition between the regions within the country. We should not try to be all things to all men. We should not try to do a little in each county; we must go for the big bang approach. We must look at some of the more iconic-type attractor products, develop them on a regional basis, and build around that theme a support infrastructure from which we will benefit. We will be successful with having a more strategic approach rather than the scatter-gun approach which was the way of the past whereby everyone got a small piece, almost like the sports capital programme, which works well because one needs a field, a playground and such facilities in each community. That latter approach, in my view, does not work from a tourism point of view. One needs a big attractor to get people into the regions and if we can do that, it will work well.

There has been a good approach by the Government. Just last week, the Taoiseach visited east County Clare and launched the Shannon region discount card, an effort by tourism operators to attract people into the region and give them value for money through a 25% discount at various centres. This co-ordinated and visionary effort is concerned with ensuring people visit and stay in a region because of value for money. It is not a question of making Ireland a cheap destination, but of giving value for money. As other Deputies stated, value is returning to the market in terms of the reduction in the cost of labour and the more sensible approach taken by joint labour committees to Sunday trading, making it more accessible and, therefore, less expensive.

The Taoiseach was also involved in the launch of the CANTATA project, a European programme in which funding is provided to assist bed and breakfasts and so on to build networks. They can develop websites to allow them to market themselves in a micro way. I also wish to be associated with the Ógra Fianna Fáil campaign, a fantastic idea in which many others have been involved previously.

As Deputy Flynn stated, we must watch the costs. The introduction of the €200 charge on second properties has been an extra burden on those who provide holiday homes in the sector. Holiday homes used as tourism products instead of as private dwellings should get special treatment in terms of exemptions.

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