Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The recent announcement of €4 billion in supports and loans is welcome. They are desperately needed for many businesses in my constituency of Cork South-West, as they are for others throughout the country, but from what I can gather they are dependent on a new Government being put in place. Our country is hugely dependent on tourism. Brilliant initiatives such as the Wild Atlantic Way lie in tatters, and the job losses in this sector are running at more than 200,000. We see today that a large percentage of people flying into Ireland are not filling in the form asking them how they intend to socially isolate for two weeks. We need to allay any fears in tourism communities, and that can be done if the completion of these forms was mandatory in airports and ports. We need to open the tourist communities and that can be done if rules can be met. Small retail businesses in smaller towns and villages are suffering as the big multinational supermarkets are wiping them out. Garden centres cannot open but large supermarkets can sell garden centre products every day. Small retail clothes shops in towns must remain closed while the large multinational shop can sell clothing every day, which will make it even more difficult for the small retail shops to reopen, no matter what we do.

My questions are on tourism. I welcome any moves that VAT on tourism could be reduced to 0%. I totally opposed the Government's proposal in the last budget, which was supported by Fianna Fáil, to raise the VAT rate on tourism from 9% to 13.5%. That was prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. That led to numerous restaurants and cafés closing their doors in west Cork. Yesterday, the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Griffin, sought support for a 0% tourism VAT rate. Is the Taoiseach seriously considering that? Will he consider having a stand-alone Minister for tourism in the future Government? Also, has there been any discussion on the creation of a new tourism task force on which there would be voices from areas of west Cork and other strong tourism communities?

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