Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that the Minister of State is answering on behalf of the Minister.

If Fáilte Ireland decides to open the office for only three weeks, the footfall will be there for only three weeks. I am ambitious for our country. I am ambitious for Newcastle West, Limerick, Kildare, Sligo, Donegal and every other place. We are open 365 days a year, 12 months of the year. One would swear from the response the Minister of State read out that this is all about beaches. Of course, we have those in many places in Ireland. Certainly, in Sligo we have them in abundance. The Minister of State mentioned Strandhill, where I live. We also have an awful lot of other attractions but, as an organisation, Fáilte Ireland has decided there is no point in opening the office except for a couple of months in the summer.

There is another thing I wish to take issue with. The Minister of State said that "the Department's role lies primarily in the area of national tourism development and in securing resources" in that regard. I know this is not necessarily the Minister of State's fault but increasingly, Ministers stand up in here and say something is an operational matter for the Garda, Fáilte Ireland, the Higher Education Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland - everybody but the Government. In my 20 years in the Houses of the Oireachtas, I cannot be called crazy for asking the question, what is it governments do now? Are they merely the communications unit for State agencies and senior civil servants? If I know one thing, it is that the people who voted for the Minister of State, the Ceann Comhairle, me and others sent us up here to try to have some level of influence on policy in order that the public and the people who pay our wages might identify and feel some sense of ownership of the national policy platform borne out of their lived experience and suggestions in life. I am not sure tonight's response captures that.

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