Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)

I thank the Deputy. I will take that as a compliment.

There is massive potential for tourism to develop in those areas in which the industry has not concentrated on. I am not saying one should not try to develop tourism further in Deputy Fleming's area, Galway or Dublin where I accept tourist numbers have decreased. The potential for the industry to grow in such areas is more limited than it is in areas such as those from where I come. As I know my own locality best, I have more to say about it. It has massive tourism potential and there is absolutely wonderful access to it. This was not the case a number of years ago, but things have changed. There are two train lines going through my constituency - three, if one includes where it splits at Athlone and goes to Galway and to Westport. There is a fabulous airport at Knock which in my case, if one knows the correct road from my house, is only 17 minutes away. There is also one of the other major ingredients, potential accommodation. In our area, there are not enough hotels. That would require a great deal of investment. What there is, which suits family holidays, something I would not have understood a few years ago but do now that I have a family, is self-catering accommodation. Investment in this area could turn something that puts people off coming to many areas, namely ghost housing estates and empty apartment blocks, into a plus by developing these apartment blocks, where suitable. One would not put a tourist near some of them and if one put tourists in them, they would never come back to the country, but there is considerable potential in some areas. For example, there is an apartment block in my town with, I think, 35 empty apartments and nothing is happening with it bar that the bank we own now owns it. We own it and I suggest funding should be put in because then there would be accommodation in the area. There is access and accommodation, and there definitely is a product.

Galway, where I lived for many years, is a fabulous place, but is it eight times more interesting than south Leitrim and Roscommon? According to the figures in my possession, remarkably it is. Some €400 million was spent on tourism there in 2010, which is one hell of a figure considering how much of it has come back, but the most accurate comparable figure I could get for south Leitrim and Roscommon was €53 million. This is not an insult to where I come from, but we will never get to the level that Galway is at. If we aspire to reach one third the level of tourism revenue that Galway gets, then, going by the figures in my possession where for every €30,000 revenue created in this sector one gets a new job, we have the potential to create between 2,500 and 3,000 jobs.

We have the longest border with the River Shannon, the mightiest river in either Great Britain or Ireland, and its tributaries, including the River Suck. If one lives in an area, no more than those who live beside Niagara Falls who do not hear them anymore, you do not necessarily appreciate it. The River Suck was featured on a documentary on one of the national stations, either RTE or TG4, and after seeing it I thought it is such a fabulous river that one would nearly have to try not to get tourists in. Investment is needed in that area, for example, through, as Deputy Fleming and others stated, putting in fishing stands for those with a disability. The fishing stands would work equally as well for men and women - one would not need different ones. The Department needs to put in that infrastructure.

We are very close to having the perfect product but we need a little more investment to create a few more facilities in areas so there are clusters. As one of the Deputies opposite stated, tourists will not come for only one amenity; they will come for many. If there are a few amenities together, they will have a greater reason to come.

I do not know what it is in the nature of many Irish people that they are quick to run their own town down. I do not know why that is so but it spreads a negative message about an area. When one looks closely at rural areas such as mine, they are amazing. They are wonderful and unique. They offer something that Killarney, Dublin and Galway do not offer. They offer tranquility. One will not go to Galway city for tranquility. One will go there for a hell of a time rather than tranquility and we should be marketing and selling rural areas accordingly.

There are examples of where moving funding from areas, such as the building of unnecessary footpaths, into other projects can create significant employment. For example, in my first few weeks as a councillor I sought to get my local swimming pool opened all year round and was told there was not enough money. Over a six month period, they spent approximately €280,000 on three projects in my town that no-one wanted, no-one asked for and no-one would be bothered if they never happened, but the people would have been elated if that funding had been spent on the swimming pool, for local reasons as well as from the point of view of developing tourism.

I hope the Government will consider increasing this cap above €150 million because when one spreads around the country the €100 million that will be left after this, it will not go too far. If the Government did increase the cap, it would certainly pay for itself rather quickly. For example, the swimming pool project on which I am working needs €475,000, which would ensure a pool that is currently losing approximately €75,000 every summer - it is open for three months of the year - could be brought to a position where it would employ six or seven staff, would no longer lose money, would bring people into the local area and would be that last piece in the jigsaw in making family holidays viable. Also, with the €470,000 or €480,000 that the Government would spend on it, so much would come in in taxes, whether from the staff employed, VAT, etc. that one is not talking about such considerable expenditure, and yet one would have a final piece in a jigsaw which would make tourism viable in my area. As a parent who goes on holidays with his kids who always want to go to a swimming pool, if there is not one in an area, we do not go within miles of the place because it is no good. The same is the case for many who want to go on holidays.

Another matter mentioned earlier is the Internet and mobile technology using Bluetooth, etc. That must be developed much further. Many Members will have an app on their iPhone where they can tap the map, it zooms in on the area the more one taps, and it goes to any town in Ireland and reveals tags in individual businesses in each area on what is happening. This means that in areas such as mine - it is not sustainable to have a tourist office in every town as it would not make sense - one has now a virtual tourist office in every town. Whatever it would take to get more people in these areas onto those maps should be done so businesses which, perhaps, thought it was not worth their while would be given an incentive.

Another area that needs to be explored is that of more joined-up thinking. At this stage, it is nearly tedious to mention joined-up thinking, because it has been around for so long and no-one ever seems to adopt it. The Government can spend all of this money but tourism will not grow if it does not create a tie-in from all the other areas, such as the local authorities, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

I mention the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from the point of view of food tourism and developing the area of markets so that if a tourist comes into a town, he or she does not end up having to go to one of the German superstores, the only advantage of which is that they know exactly where the bread is because it is in the same place as where they came from. The Department should get involved in helping develop markets. Unfortunately, since the 1950s and the 1960s, when Ireland was far from perfect and when in many ways I would not have liked to lived there, a town such as mine, Roscommon town, Strokestown and Mohill in Leitrim, all had markets and were teaming with life. There were cows on the street and cabbage plants for sale. There was loads of different things, such as those one sees now in France and Italy. There was more life in evidence. If funding could be put into that area, which is why I think the funding the Department is spending on this needs to be raised, it would help considerably.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government needs to come on board on this because the countryside is strewn with rubbish and litter. When I was addressing this issue last week to the Minister, Deputy Hogan, I made the point that the polluter pays principle is a great idea but asked what happens if the polluter cannot afford to pay and what will the Department do as rubbish will end up in the wrong place. Also, there are many people who can afford to get rid of their rubbish but do not do it either - I am not picking out a particular person. Nevertheless, all of these items are required to be put right before we can maximise the potential of tourism.

There is also a role for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and especially local authorities when it comes to fixing a bad bend on a road. Although it is the policy of many councils to replace a ditch or hedging when they remove a bend, in general, one ends up with a chain-link fence and concrete posts which are not very attractive to tourists and for which they do not come here. There is also the replacement of stone walls with concrete mass structures. Are we trying to run people who come here out of the country? This is a recipe for disaster. They may believe they are saving money, but it will simply cost them a great deal more in the long run.

I have referred to ghost housing estates and how unsightly they appear, but there is also the issue of derelict buildings. There are derelict buildings in many towns throughout the country with which people have no money to do anything. If they try to do something with such a building, they must do certain things to maintain its heritage and must do so in the right way, rightly so. However, this often leads to a situation where it costs a ridiculous amount of money to do the work and the building falls into disrepair or down around everyone's ears, which makes the place appear rather untidy and not the type of place to which one might wish to go on holiday.

We should concentrate on getting costs down also. My parliamentary assistant who must be too well paid, was on holidays in Germany two weeks ago. He came back with the news that one could have a slap-up meal and two pints in Berlin for €10. This is in Germany, a highly developed economy, possibly one of the most developed in the world. Where could one do that here? One cannot. One can buy a pint of beer in Berlin for €2.10 and it is nicer beer than what is produced here. We must bring down costs to try to compete with this and tne way to do so is to do something about rates. My suggestion to bring them down is to get rid of all the directors of services and use the money spent on them to reduce rates. Also, we should get rid of 75% of councillors because they do not have any power; therefore, there is no point in having them. In that way one could reduce rates and businesses could bring down their costs. Obviously, people would be more likely to come here as a result.

The high level of wages is another issue. Wages do not appear to be especially high when one is living in this country because the cost of everything else is also high, including one's mortgage. However, as long as there is a situation where someone working in an hotel has a €200,000 or €400,000 mortgage to service, we will never be able to bring down costs. Something must be done about the amount of people's outputs if we are to become more competitive. The person who works in the Bierstube in Berlin does not have to pay out €1,000 or €2,000 to repay his or her mortgage and as a result does not need as much money on which to live. People here would be happier on less money if they could buy more with their money. In such circumstances visitors would be more likely to come here.

The euro currency has crippled us when it comes to the British market. The currency is fine for Germany and the Netherlands. It is appropriate for their economies, but it makes us highly uncompetitive. I realise everyone might be horrified at the prospect that we might be obliged to leave the euro, but I foresee many advantages if we could leave it in a managed way. At this stage being part of the euro is like being part of a religion my mother warned me against. She said, "It is easy to get in, but they will not let you back out again." This seems to be the case with the euro.

All of these measures could help. Certainly, I do not have all the answers, but some of my suggestions could help greatly. Those living in areas such as where I come from will not see a vast number of jobs being created by multinationals in the years ahead; therefore, we must go with what we have. They cannot transfer our beauty spots to another country and the jobs with them. They cannot take our great food which we can continue to produce forever. I will vote for this measure. I would prefer to see more money being invested because it would be the best money ever spent in the country if done in the right way since the potential of the tourism industry is phenomenal in the area from which I come and other similar areas that have not been exploited to their true and full potential.

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