Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the Good Friday Agreement, tourism is specifically designated as an area of cross-Border co-operation. Tourism Ireland was therefore established to market the entire island of Ireland as a destination in overseas markets.   

Co-operation on tourism does not take place directly with the Assembly. Rather, the tourism Ministers from the Government here and the Northern Ireland Executive meet regularly in the North South Ministerial Council, NSMC, tourism sectoral format.  The most recent sectoral took place in January.  Among the items discussed were Tourism Ireland's Business Plan 2014 and Corporate Plan 2014-2016. Both these documents set out the strategies being employed to grow tourism to the island of Ireland in the next three years.

The Deputy and I may believe that a single tourism agency makes more sense than the three that are currently in existence. However any changes to this set-up would require substantive changes to the North-South framework and could only progress within a wider political and institutional agreement.

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