Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is absolutely right. The huge amount of spend by Irish people going abroad to holiday is something that over the years we have been doing our best to tap into more.

Our people in Fáilte Ireland do significant work in that regard to try to keep people staying at home - buzzwords we are hearing an awful lot more of lately. That is why, just before this crisis hit us, we launched a new advertising campaign to try to encourage more of that for 2020. Unfortunately, that space has shifted considerably since then.

There is no intention to move funding out of the outdoor recreational infrastructure scheme. It is administered primarily by the Department of Rural and Community Development but we contribute to the scheme. It has helped many areas and I would like the collaboration to continue into the future.

Similarly, in the case of greenways, I will speak to the people in the Department who deal with them. As the Deputy will know, last June our Department announced significant funding for a number of greenways around the country as part of the national greenway strategy, which kickstarted the development of strategically located greenways and high-value tourism throughout the country. I will ask the officials to engage with the local authorities to get an update on how they are being developed and to talk to any local authorities that may anticipate difficulties in completing the projects.

Tourism Ireland is pushing Ireland's Ancient East heavily. I visited the Deputy's constituency the year before last and announced grant aid for a number of projects in Kilkenny.

I will look further into the matter of the Destination Towns scheme.

The Irish Open was due to be held in Kilkenny this year and it is a great loss to the county. We invest significant sums in the tournament every year because we recognise the value of it. We will have to revisit how we will approach it in the future. The event has fallen victim to the pandemic but it would have been of great benefit to the Deputy's constituency.

See this speech in context