Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased to respond to Deputies Cathal Crowe and O'Dea on this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin.

The management of Shannon Heritage sites, including their opening arrangements, is an operational matter for Shannon Heritage and Shannon Group plc, which is a commercial State body under the aegis of the Department of Transport. Shannon Heritage has a commercial mandate to manage a portfolio of tourism and heritage attractions in the mid-west region and Dublin. As Shannon Group operates in both the aviation and tourism sectors, it has been severely impacted by Covid-19.

Budget 2021 includes a number of substantial measures to support and strengthen the tourism sector. Those measures are supplemented by economy-wide business supports and social welfare measures. The total funding for the tourism sector will increase in 2021 by more than €59 million, or 36%, over the initial 2020 allocation in budget 2020, to €220.9 million. Combined with other measures such as the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, and the rates waiver, the Government is helping to sustain businesses that have been most severely affected by the necessary public health restrictions. As part of the budget package of measures, €55 million has been provided for business continuity schemes for strategic tourism businesses to help them survive through the pandemic and contribute towards driving the recovery. This funding will be administered by Fáilte Ireland and focused on strategic businesses. Fáilte Ireland is currently engaging with the tourism sector in the design of funding schemes, taking into account the effect of other horizontal funding measures.

In addition, the VAT rate for the sector has been reduced to 9%, which will improve the competitiveness and viability of businesses. Funding of €5 million has been provided for focused upskilling training to support business survival and recovery in the sector and the improvement of the digital presence and e-commerce capability of tourism businesses. Investment in the tourism marketing fund has been maintained to ensure that Ireland is in a position to recover quickly, when it is safe for tourists to return from our key markets.

In response to the impacts of Covid-19, the Government has put in place a range of supports to help business and citizens face the challenges presented by the global pandemic. I understand that Shannon Group, including Shannon Heritage, has benefited from these horizontal supports, which include the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, its predecessor, the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS, the rates waiver and VAT warehousing. The tourism recovery task force undertook a comprehensive analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on the sector and drew up a recovery plan containing more than 30 recommendations across a number of areas designed to help the sector to survive and recover from the crisis out to 2023. Its short-term recommendations informed the sector-specific measures adopted in the budget. To help inform our ongoing response to the pandemic, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media will shortly appoint an oversight group to monitor the implementation of the recovery plan and the recovery of the tourism sector in general.

In regard to Shannon Heritage specifically, a commitment was made by the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, to provide funding to ensure that Bunratty Castle and Folk Park and King John's Castle, which were due to close at the end of August, could remain open to the end of 2020, subject to public health measures. It is open to Shannon Heritage to explore further the various support mechanisms now available. I encourage it to liaise with Fáilte Ireland on the State supports of which it may be able to avail.

I thank the Deputies for raising this important matter. The tourism industry in its entirety has been decimated by the Covid-19 crisis and the sector will take the longest to recover. Overcoming the challenges faced by the sector as a whole will be instrumental in driving economic recovery, particularly in rural areas.

See this speech in context