Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I spent a day in Waterford just before the summer when I had an opportunity to meet many of the people involved in tourism in Deputy Halligan’s county. In fairness to the Deputy, although I was aware of it, I acknowledge that I heard from them about their dissatisfaction and annoyance at Waterford not being able to participate in the Wild Atlantic Way initiative. Deputy Halligan is correct to say that the Ancient East is a new plan that is designed to make the most of all of the assets a county such as Waterford has to offer. From tourism promotion work I have done with Tourism Ireland, I am certain there is a huge appetite for the development and launch of a heritage and arts-based tourism campaign that will attract a new kind of tourist to this country who is not currently coming in the numbers we need.

I am aware of the challenge to which Deputy Halligan referred in his region. From my recollection of the figures on the number of people who visit the Deputy's county, the share of the revenue of all the money that is generated in tourism in the country that goes to the county is considerably below what would be warranted by the number of visitors to the county.

One of the reasons for that is the low number of bed nights in the county and in adjoining counties as compared to other parts of the country. The Wild Atlantic Way has sought to address that in one part of the country, while Ireland's Ancient East is seeking to address in another.

On the specific point the Deputy made on access to capital, the Viking triangle in Waterford City, which I had the opportunity to visit, received €10.5 million in capital funding alone from Fáilte Ireland. This appears to be very well invested in the centre of the city and I was extremely impressed by what I saw. In total, Waterford has now received just under €13 million in capital investment from Fáilte Ireland.

The Deputy's final point related to the consideration of applications from Waterford. I have discussed this matter with Fáilte Ireland and I learned that no application from the county was successful in gaining funding. As the Deputy will appreciate, I do not play a role in evaluating individual applications but I assure him that Fáilte Ireland is working with interests in the county to look at how applications can be strengthened so that they might be in a position to access funding in the near future.

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