Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

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. As Shannon Group operates in both the aviation and tourism sectors, it has been severely impacted by Covid-19. With regard to tourism, budget 2021 included a number of substantial measures to support and strengthen the tourism sector and they are supplemented by the 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 resilience 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 be there to help drive the recovery. This funding will be administered by Fáilte Ireland and focused on those strategic businesses. Fáilte Ireland is currently engaging with those tourism sectors in the design of funding schemes, taking into account the effect of other horizontal funding measures, such as CRSS.

The VAT rate for the sector is reduced to 9%, which will improve the competitiveness and viability of businesses. Funding of €5 million has also been provided for focused upskilling training to support business survival and recovery in the sector, and for 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 our citizens face the challenges presented by this global pandemic. I would encourage the entity responsible for the management of the sites concerned to liaise with Fáilte Ireland on what State supports might be available. Horizontal supports include the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, the rates waiver, VAT warehousing and CRSS.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

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 my ongoing response to the pandemic, I will shortly appoint an oversight group which will monitor the implementation of the recovery plan, as well as the recovery of the tourism sector in general.

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