John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I remember asking this question in 2017 when I was spokesperson on Dublin. Tourism is an invisible export, which must be worth billions. It has always concerned me to think that Fáilte Ireland, the tourism agency body, spends so little on research into tourism. It spent €2.6 million in 2021, which is risible. I imagine the research budgets for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and its agencies; Enterprise Ireland; the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; and science are multiples of this and tourism is such an incredibly valuable product for Ireland. It always amazes me that so little is spent on tourism research, not just for visitors coming from Ireland but for visitors within Ireland to ask them what they want to see in their cities and towns from a tourism perspective. I want to get the Minister of State's perspective on that.

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