Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the budget and will focus in my contribution on two areas for which I have responsibility, tourism and sport, before commenting on the budget in general. I welcome the fact that the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has been allocated an additional €72 million. Specifically in my own area of responsibility in the development of sport and tourism, I am delighted that I have secured agreement from Government through the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for funding around the sports capital programme for 2017. I will provide further details of that in the coming weeks. This is of huge importance to me and other Deputies and to communities across the country. It is a programme that makes a tangible difference to communities in urban and rural areas. It is a labour activation measure and also a recognition by the State of the work that has been done by sporting organisations on the ground.

I compliment and commend the work of the State agencies for which I have responsibility, namely Sport Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. There is competition for resources and there are challenges in the areas of both current and capital expenditure, but I am committed to working with the three agencies for which I have direct responsibility as well as the national governing bodies in sport and the representative organisations within tourism to ensure that we grow those sectors. Specifically in the area of sport, I draw particular attention to the work of Sport Ireland and my Department over the last number of months to prepare athletes for the Olympics and Paralympics. Contributing to the debate on the financial resolution is the first time I have had a chance to speak in the House since the games and I take the opportunity to compliment all of the athletes who represented us so impeccably in Rio. Sport Ireland and the Department are looking at the effectiveness of the high-performance programme and at Ireland's participation and performance at the Olympic Games. This will form part of our work programme for 2017.

I am delighted that my efforts have resulted in the securing of the 9% VAT rate for the tourism and hospitality industry for the next 12 months. When that initiative was brought before the House initially some years ago, it was opposed for political purposes and the wrong reasons. It was opposed because of opposition for opposition's sake. The initiative has played no small part in the revival of the Irish tourism and hospitality industry and the creation of thousands of jobs in communities across the country. I welcome the decision of the Minister for Finance to continue with the 9% VAT initiative. It has returned a great deal to the Exchequer in terms of VAT, PRSI and PAYE contributions as well as other taxes by virtue of the fact that it is a stimulus to the tourism industry. It is regrettable that some of those who opposed the measure in the House when it was originally introduced as part of the jobs initiative do not have the courage to say now that they were wrong. They might use the opportunity to do that in their budget speeches later. Very few people have spoken about tourism but they might use their parties' time and their own time to say they were wrong to oppose the initiative.

We have a tourism programme for 2017 which includes €109 million on the current side and €13 million on the capital side. This is very important in terms of growing the tourism industry. We have a vibrant tourism industry and we are developing brands that are enablers in terms of bringing people to the country to have a good experience. I cite in particular the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland's Ancient East and the Dublin brand, A Breath of Fresh Air, but there is a great deal more that we have to do. There are three critical risks facing the Irish tourism industry as I have said publicly before. Brexit is an obvious threat but there is also competitiveness and political stability. I rank those in no particular order, but Brexit has its own challenges because tourism is an area which has contributed in no small way to the revival of the economy. It is a regional industry which has spread through every county. For my summer holidays, I was in the constituencies of both the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Counties Donegal and Waterford have fantastic offerings, as do all our counties and there is an opportunity for people to experience that. The risks that exist are ones we cannot take for granted. I appeal to the industry on competitiveness. We must ensure that the visitor who comes to Ireland has an enjoyable experience and that our staycationer, the person holidaying at home in Ireland, also has an enjoyable experience so that we get the repeat business.

We all remember what happened in the early noughties and do not want to go down that road again. That is one of the risks. Another is Brexit and the tumble in the value of sterling. The offering in places such as Scotland, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is something of which we have to be mindful as we develop our product.

Stability is important in the development of tourism policy. The policy adopted by my predecessors in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, now Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring, is critical in developing the industry into the future. There can be no shocks to the system in terms of policy. Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland are working off a blueprint. In the next few years we hope to have 250,000 people working in the tourism and hospitality industry. That is a major endorsement of the creation of real jobs in the real economy for real people who pay real mortgages and rear real children.

My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Breen, referred to job announcements. In Newcastle West, County Limerick, we were very fortunate recently to have an announcement of a long overdue investment. It is almost 40 years since the last foreign company invested directly in the area, a company which is still in existence. It has been announced that Ortec is establishing a European manufacturing base in Newcastle West, with the creation of 110 jobs initially. That is very important and has been brought about by the climate created in the past few years which has made Ireland a good place in which to invest.

The budget offers an opportunity which many other Deputies in the House in 2011 and I never thought would be possible within a five year period. There will be an additional 2,500 teachers and 800 gardaí, as well as the allocation of €107 million for rural development. Farming organisations have welcomed tax initiatives and other incentives. There is the largest budget allocation ever for the health service, a €5 increase across the board in social welfare payments, as well as cuts to USC rates, a much hated tax introduced at a time when the country was on its knees. There is also support for first-time buyers, as well as a range of other measures across Departments in areas such as the arts, defence and agriculture.

We cannot have a programme-based recovery, section by section, unless we have a strong economy. Everybody in the House knows that the decisions taken in the past five years were very difficult, but it was the right thing to do. Can one imagine where we would be today had we not made these decisions? We would be in a very difficult position and not able to deliver any of the elements to which I referred, not to mention the improvements for which I hope to be responsible my Department.

There is no doubt that this is a new Government, but those in the cheap seats are being found out. It is very easy to criticise. In the aftermath of the general election there was an opportunity for people to tog off and put on a jersey, but some decided to run away. It was not the first time that had happened and it will not be the last. Those who signed up to support the Government structure in place have taken a risk because it is a political arrangement that has never been experienced since the foundation of the State. There are risks to the Government, but the principal Opposition party has behaved very responsibly. It has taken its duty very seriously in terms of the constitutional position of its members as Members of the Oireachtas, but that is where it ends. The rest of those in opposition have taken an àla carteapproach. Let us see their budget proposals and whether the figures add up. I refer to the Whirligig Witch and Mickey Mouse proposals that suggest we tax our way into oblivion in the hope the economy would recover. That is what Sinn Féin hopes they would do. In increasing VAT and the USC we would drive people out of the country, proposals Sinn Féin has conveniently decided to ditch.Those involved in the tourism industry have not forgotten what it proposed to do. Those involved in the industry in County Donegal are acutely aware of the benefits of the 9% VAT rate and the damage an increase in the rate would do to Ireland. They are also acutely aware of the travel tax and the other initiatives Sinn Féin opposed. Sinn Féin has seen what the Government has done. It is aware of the number of people now employed in Irish industries and the opportunities that have been created for them to rear their children in an environment which five years ago we never thought it would be possible to create. The alternative is stark; it is one in which the country would be sent hurtling back into the Stone Age.

That is a place I do not believe anybody in this House wants to go.

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