Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the questions. It is a question I imagine will return time and again, and rightly so, because of the present situation.

Since the UK voted to leave the EU, my Department has been fully engaged in evaluating the ensuing risks for tourism and, together with the tourism agencies, working to address those risks. The Department's analysis of the situation was greatly assisted by the all-island sectoral meeting I hosted with the industry in January which examined the impact of Brexit on the tourism and hospitality sector. From a departmental perspective, we will continue our work across Government to ensure our concerns are high on the agenda. For tourism, the priorities include maintaining a liberalised aviation regime, preserving the common travel area, avoiding a hard Border and retaining British-Irish visa agreements for third countries.

The tourism agencies are engaged in the operational aspects of preparing for Brexit. Tourism Ireland is responsible for marketing Ireland as a tourism destination overseas. In broad terms, its strategy involves two main elements. First, it has taken steps to revise its marketing effort in Britain to make it more relevant in a Brexit environment. As well as this, it is implementing a market diversification strategy. This aims to attract more visitors from markets which deliver longer stays and, therefore, higher revenue returns. The significant increase in visitors from North America in early 2017 is evidence of this.

For its part, Fáilte Ireland is also working on a number of fronts to assist the diversification and development of our tourism industry and the attractiveness of our tourism product offering.  Ongoing work to develop the main experience brands and enhance visitor experiences is aimed at boosting our appeal to key target markets and priority consumer segments. With regard to training and business supports, Fáilte Ireland offers a suite of supports to enhance the competitiveness, enterprise capability and sustainability of the tourism sector.  In addition, it is creating a new Brexit response programme that will focus on delivering a capability building programme for industry.

I will provide more detail on tourist numbers from Britain and other specific areas in a moment.

See this speech in context