Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being present for this entire debate. I acknowledge her work since she has gone into the Department. I notice that she has been back on the road over the past few weeks in the US and the UK. That is essential. I want to endorse everything that Deputy Griffin said about Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, two superb organisations. There are people across the world in Tourism Ireland who sell the message very well and they need as much support as we can give.

We cannot have any cliff-edge withdrawal of the supports for those colleagues that are essential to our tourism and hospitality sector, including EWSS and rates supports. It is crucial that they are wound down on a controlled basis and continue well into next year because the market is not coming back.

However, there are many chickens coming home to roost due to a lack of investment in tourism and in particular, in skills training in the Irish tourism industry. I am old enough to remember CERT. It put a focus on tourism professions in cheffing, hotel management and many other areas in hotel and bar services. That model was integrated into standard training models and we have lost many skills and talent as a consequence. We need a focus on hospitality training in a way that CERT used to do. It used to use hotels during the off-season to provide on-site training. We need to once again build tourism into a career that is attractive for younger people and for those making changes in their lives. The biggest challenge I hear about from the tourism and hospitality sectors is the inability to attract staff.

I spoke earlier about Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland. Locally led tourism co-operatives such as Mayo North Tourism in my constituency, do amazing work and have developed a fantastic suite of marketing tools and social media skills for local hotels. They have put a focus on this that Tourism Ireland cannot and that Fáilte Ireland do not. These local tourism co-operatives need greater funding and support and need to be allowed to continue the way they are, with a continued investment in capital projects. We had the Westport House announcement, which was very welcome and involves major investment, but we need further projects such as the proposed greenway from the Céide Fields to Dún Briste and Downpatrick Head, which was the site of the Red Bull diving a few weeks ago. It was a spectacular occasion, which will do wonders. There is also the Killala Bay greenway from Killala to Ballina and Inniscrone. I look forward to welcoming the Minister to join us in Ballina in 2023, when we will mark 300 years since the establishment of our town. The work for that is already under way by a local group, including Mayo North Tourism, which I mentioned, Moy Valley and Ballina Chamber of Commerce. A consortium of interests has come together, and we look forward to welcoming the Minister and look forward to her Department's support for that.

Aviation is coming out of the most incredibly difficult challenges but doing so in a very focused manner. I congratulate Pádraig Ó Céidigh and wish him every success. Is fear iontach agus Éireannach iontach é, agus níl aon dabht agam ach go ndéanfaidh sé an-jab. As Shannon and Cork airports, two State-owned airports, in whatever capacity, are pulled into the regional airports programme, I ask the Minister not to let that happen with a cost to the existing regional airports such as Ireland West Airport Knock. We need to continue our supports for our airports such as Ireland West Airport Knock, which, before Covid, had just under 800,000 passengers per year. We want to continue that growth. It is essential. I pay tribute to Arthur French, the chairman of the board, the board itself, Joe Gilmore and all the staff there on their work at such a difficult time.

We continue to go back to tourism. Every time our economy takes pressure, we go to tourism and agriculture. However, we cannot keep taking from it; we have to put into it. The Minister needs support in marketing, capital and investment in careers and training, and I hope she gets that support next Tuesday.

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