Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Tourism Ireland is a North-South Body established under the Good Friday Agreement and it is accountable to the North South Ministerial Council, of which I am a member. At one meeting I had the opportunity to speak to my counterpart and a bilateral meeting is planned in due course. When this issue was initially discussed it was the view of the Government at the time that there would be a single tourism authority for all Ireland. If there were to be a united Ireland this would be the case. However, for this to be the case, there would have to be agreement from the all-party Executive in Northern Ireland and this is not the case because the Unionist community wishes to retain the separate Northern Ireland Tourism Board as a separate entity to promote Northern Ireland and it is not prepared to move from that position. This is the case at the moment.

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