Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to the broad welcome for the measures that were announced yesterday by the Government. Certain voices in the House criticised some of the measures. I suppose that is the job of the Opposition, but one would think that when it comes to something as important as national recovery after a once-in-a-century pandemic that there would be an objective approach to what is going on or what is being done by the Government. Unfortunately, party politics has got in the way again of what is the most important issue, that is, that all people are helped to recover from this terrible pandemic.

I wish to home in on one particular area, namely, tourism and hospitality. I very much welcome the early signal on the 9% VAT rate in respect of 2022, which I called for in the House and at private parliamentary party meetings as well. That is a good measure, but it is very important that it would be continued long beyond September 2022. It is very welcome, but this will be a long recovery for the tourism and hospitality sector and we will need such supports.

Deputy Carroll MacNeill referred to the extension of business supports and also to the broadening of the eligibility criteria. That is very welcome, as it is critical and will be the difference between survival and people going out of business. We need to see that continue for as long as possible.

When global aviation gets back to some semblance of normality and international tourism gets going again, it will be the most competitive ever. We will need to support aviation in terms of new routes and to support Tourism Ireland with its international marketing. A massive effort will have to be made to help Ireland to remain competitive internationally and to re-establish the routes. The CEO of Tourism Ireland, Niall Gibbons, always said that it is like resetting the clock on 1 January, that we start all over again to try to achieve the figures. This is the mother and father of all restarts. We must support the efforts of everybody who helps to bring visitors into this country once we get back to normal again and that will require financial assistance.

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