Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Tourism is among the responsibilities of the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, and I understand that while attending a tourism event yesterday, he made some remarks which were aimed at encouraging domestic tourism. This is what he does; it is part of his job.

Deputy McDonald asked me whether the Government believes everything is okay. We do not believe everything is okay. When we came into office we inherited a country that was broken. Its public finances and banks and the morale of its people are broken and we have a huge problem of unemployment. Large numbers of people are out of work which, in turn, is related to the major problems the Deputy described in respect of people who are living in poverty or at risk of poverty. The Government is determined to deal with this issue. At the centre of doing so must be getting people back into employment and securing jobs and investment. We have been pursuing several strategies to achieve this objective. First, to secure investment we have had to restore the country's reputation and I believe we have made a significant advance in this regard. We have had to communicate to potential investors outside the country who are contemplating investing here that this is a good country in which to invest and we are succeeding in doing so.

Second, we have to get the domestic economy moving again. One of the major problems we have had for some time in the domestic economy has been the difficulty experienced by businesses in accessing finance and capital, in particular people who are starting up a business. The Government is addressing both of these issues.

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