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

I did indeed spend a lovely holiday in west Cork with my family, where I bumped into the Deputy. It is a beautiful part of the world. The tourism sector has been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the necessary public health restrictions introduced to control it. Since my appointment as Minister, I have been fully engaged with stakeholders in seeking to identify and implement supports to ensure the sector’s survival and recovery. I appreciate fully the impact in an area as dependent on tourism as beautiful west Cork.

A tourism recovery task force was appointed last year to prepare a tourism recovery plan, which includes a set of recommendations on how best the domestic tourism sector can adapt and recover in a changed tourism environment as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. That task force presented its plan for 2020 to 2023 to me in September last year and it has been an important input for myself and my colleagues in government in considering the measures to assist the tourism sector. Together with horizontal measures implemented to support businesses across the economy, such as the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, and the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, the sector-specific supports I have introduced have been key in helping tourism businesses to survive and employees to remain engaged in the sector.

The recovery oversight group I appointed last December is keeping me informed of progress on the implementation of the recovery plan and developments in the tourism sector more generally. As part of the national economic recovery plan, the Government will also outline how it will help people return to work and further support sectors such as tourism.  We will consider more targeted measures to help with the reboot in that sector. In line with our programme for Government commitments, the development of a new national tourism policy, which will have sustainability at its core, will commence later this year when the sector begins to recover from the Covid-19 crisis.

The advent of the Covid-19 crisis meant that the work of the sustainable tourism working group was temporarily suspended but it was re-established early this year to complete its work in identifying the steps that can be taken to promote sustainable tourism practices which can be implemented from 2021 to 2023.  Tourism has proven itself resilient before, and I am confident that with the key support of the Government it will recover from this crisis and thrive again.

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