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

As the national tourism development authority, in line with its statutory functions as set out in section 8(1)(a) of the National Tourism Development Authority Act 2003, Fáilte Ireland's role is to support the long-term sustainable growth of tourism in Ireland. Its remit does not extend to jurisdictions outside the State, such as Northern Ireland. Tourism Northern Ireland, which is a non-departmental body of the Department for the Economy in the North, is responsible for the development of tourism in Northern Ireland.

Fáilte Ireland develops, supports and promotes tourism at regional and county level within the State in line with the relevant tourism experience brands, which provide the overarching context for enterprise supports, tourism product development and related marketing. There are four regional tourism experience brands covering all counties of the Republic of Ireland - the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland's Ancient East, Ireland's Hidden Heartlands and Dublin.

Tourism Ireland promotes the island of Ireland in more than 21 markets overseas as a compelling holiday destination, using the Ireland brand to position the island as strongly as possible against the more than 200 other destinations with which Ireland competes. Tourism Ireland promotes Ireland's four regional experience brands, as well as Northern Ireland's experience brand, Embrace a Giant Spirit, on a range of platforms, including online, overseas trade platforms and other publicity.

My Department and both tourism agencies will continue to foster North-South co-operation to enhance an all-island tourism offering and grow international visitor numbers to the entire island. My officials continue to liaise with their counterparts in the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland through monthly meetings and also quarterly operational meetings with both the Department for the Economy and Tourism Ireland.

On 20 January 2022, I took part in a shared island dialogue event hosted by the Department of the Taoiseach, which focused on all-island tourism. Over 160 tourism and civil society stakeholders from across the island joined the event online to discuss the success of tourism co-operation on the island of Ireland over the past 20 years and explore how best to enhance opportunities for domestic and international visitors in the years ahead. Over the course of the dialogue, a number of key themes emerged including the opportunity for greater alignment and linkages between tourism initiatives on the island and further developing on a cross-Border basis the on-island tourism that has grown in response to the pandemic travel restrictions.

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My Department will continue to work with the Department of the Taoiseach to implement our commitments to the North-South development of tourism as included in the shared island chapter of the renewed national development plan. This includes supporting Tourism Ireland in its mission to grow tourism into the island of Ireland, to promote the recovery of the sector post pandemic and to work with the Northern Ireland Executive on developing large-scale North-South tourism initiatives which will support the sustainable growth of the sector including cross-Border walking and cycling trails as well as new market opportunities.

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