John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill. I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, all the best in his portfolio, as this is the first opportunity I have had to do so. He was very vocal when he was on this side of the House, therefore, I am sure he will implement some of the ideas and suggestions he had. It is important to increase funding for this area. I am sure the Minister of State will fight his corner at the Cabinet table to ensure adequate funding is made available for the future development of tourism.

I might not be as complimentary as Deputy Dooley to some of the bodies. The mid-west and the Shannon area do very well from Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland but I am not so sure the south east or my county, the model county of Wexford, which is probably one of the most beautiful counties in Ireland, gets the same level of support and assistance from those two bodies. The general feeling in the south east, particularly in my county, is that it does not.

Many people are working in the tourism industry. It accounts for approximately 200,000 full-time and part-time jobs throughout the country. It is an important industry for the future development of this country. We in the south-east corner have been trying for many years to promote tourism to our region, particularly between our region and Wales. Wexford County Council has been twinned with Pembrokeshire. The local hotels and golf clubs have an interaction between parts of Wales and the south east and that works reasonably well. There is an exchange in terms of golfing expeditions, angling and different types of fishing. We have a huge influx of Welsh visitors in the south east during the rugby season. Many of them might not have a ticket of the match in the Aviva Stadium but they come and spend their time in the south east on match weekends and that is very welcome.

There are tremendous opportunities for the development of marine tourism. The Minister of State comes from the west coast and I come from the south-east coast. The old fishery boards were fairly active in this area but I am not sure that the new body is as active. I do not know if the Minister of State has met the representatives of it yet. It could do much more to develop angling, boating and surfing. We have miles and miles of coastline and such tourism is probably under exploited at present. I was in that Department for a year and we worked very closely with the fishery boards to promote such tourism. There was a good level of co-operation between local authorities and the fishery boards at that time in developing unique tourist attractions based on the marine sector. It is important that we continue to develop that work together to achieve that. However, it cannot be just left to Fáilte Ireland or Tourism Ireland. Local authorities and the Department have a major role to play in working together in that respect.

Many local authorities have been involved in tourism projects and I cite my local authority as an example. It has been involved in the development of the Hook Lighthouse, the heritage park in Wexford, the John F. Kennedy Park, the Dunbrody Famine Ship in New Ross and many other projects. It is about developing tourism at local level. Nearly every large and small parish in my county has some unique tourism project that they encourage people to visit. If people come to the county, they do not only go the towns, the John F. Kennedy Park or the heritage park, they expand their trip and travel to the countryside.

I met representatives of the Wexford IFA on a number of occasions. I have often talked about the development of rural tourism or agricultural tourism, as I call it, because rural tourism is essentially agricultural tourism given that the farmers provide the land for walking schemes. Farmers are developing in-farm visits and farm holidays. That is another area where there is huge potential for development and expansion. Farmers are doing well at present and they are exploring alternative schemes. It is important that agriculture is tied into tourism development for the future.

Tourism Ireland has made great play this week of the 500,000 million fans it has on its website. I spoke to a hotelier this morning, who telephoned me about another matter, who said it is grand to have fans on the website but we need bodies in Ireland. It is important we get people to come here. He made the point that the same number of consumers are leaving the UK this year as left it five or ten years ago but they are not coming to Ireland. He said they are turning left and they are going to sunnier spots, to Germany or other counties, but they are not coming to Ireland. It is an area we need to examine and spend more time promoting Ireland as a destination to which the UK visitor would come.

The visits of the Queen and President Obama accounted for massive publicity for this country. We all enjoyed the few days they were here and the publicity Ireland received. I ask the Minister of State to say, when he replies to the debate, how he feels we should be able to exploit the visits of Queen Elizabeth and President Obama to this country. I read recently that there are approximately 40 million Irish Americans in the United States. If even one per cent of them visited Ireland on a regular basis we would be doing very well. This is an opportunity we should not lose. The previous and present Governments made brave decisions in inviting Queen Elizabeth to come here. We have had regular visits by Presidents of the United States. We should not lose this opportunity. We have tapped into the goodwill between the British and Irish people.

We should use whatever opportunities we have to encourage more United Kingdom people to come to Ireland. Ireland is now a safe place to come. We had our troubles in the past and people may have been afraid to come. Now, one can come and move freely in both North and South. We should get the message out that there are 32 counties in Ireland. The whole of Ireland is a good place to visit and we have many tourism sites that people would want to see. We should encourage second generation Irish people in the United Kingdom and the United States to visit Ireland.

A million visitors come through Rosslare port every year, but Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland seem to be more supportive of airports than of ports. It is important that ports be given the same publicity and promotion as airports. Wales is on the doorstep of the south east and is only a short hop across the water from Dublin. It is important that tourism bodies promote our ports as well as our airports. There should be a combined effort, as Deputy Dooley said. Waterford airport and other smaller airports around the country have huge potential. All opportunities should be taken to encourage people to come here, whether the traffic comes through ports or airports.

I thank the Minister of State for bringing the Bill before the House. It is one thing to enact legislation but I am sure the Minister of State will have to present his case to the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform. However, if Deputy Ring is looking for money for Wexford I am sure he will have no problem with Deputy Brendan Howlin. If the Minister of State starts to look for money for that part of the country he will probably get it and he can then move on to the rest of the country.

I wish the Minister of State well in his position. I know he will do a good job and will fight to ensure that as many people as possible come to visit Ireland.

Finally, I must mention the visit of the tall ships to Waterford. The event was a huge success and a tremendous opportunity to encourage people to come here. I hope they will return to the south-east in the next few years.

See this speech in context