Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

With regard to the Gathering, a chairman, Mr. Tim O'Connor, has been appointed and is in place. The next step is to appoint a board to oversee implementation, which will happen soon. There will be a voluntary council of champions and individual well known celebrities who are being approached and asked whether they will promote the project. There will also be an executive team, the members of which will come from the existing tourism bodies, including Fáilte Ireland and, I hope, Tourism Ireland. We are also hoping to receive support from other public bodies and organisations. There is also the option of using interns for the project.

It is estimated that the project will cost perhaps €13 million or €14 million over two years, but there is no separate, dedicated funding stream for it at this stage. There have been some offers of support from private companies, which could prove helpful, but I cannot give the Deputy a guarantee that it will not involve cutting back on other programmes. There will be cutbacks in the tourism budget next year. Obviously, some of the resources for the Gathering will have to be found from this. However, the Gathering is being designed in a particular way to complement what we are already doing. It is not supposed to comprise a series of new events or festivals which might flop but is instead an attempt to build on existing festivals and events and to do new things in different towns. Rather than closing a festival to provide for the Gathering, we wish to piggy-back on existing festivals.

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