Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The House will hear many references to west Cork in the next seven minutes. I am informed there is a drinking game: any time I mention "west Cork" during my Dáil contributions, a drink should be taken.

I welcome the Bill and the provision of funding, and I say "Well done" to the Minister for all the work she is doing in this regard. I want to be parochial, like everyone else, and talk about west Cork. Everyone, or certainly those who live there, knows how wonderful west Cork is and I am sure the Minister is tired of hearing this but I know she is a fan of the entire area. From a marketing and branding point of view and trying to sell the regions internationally, west Cork is often overlooked. The recent €1 million campaign by Tourism Ireland aimed at marketing Ireland in the US is very much focused on Shannon and County Clare, but there is a missed opportunity in that regard. I understand the rationale in that Shannon Airport has transatlantic flights, but we have had this debate previously about where the gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way is. Efforts were made by Fáilte Ireland to brand Killarney as the gateway, which we debated and contested because it is clear that the most obvious gateway to or starting point of the Wild Atlantic Way is Kinsale and west Cork. There are some good and obvious reasons for this, first of which is Cork Airport. I commend management at the airport who are ramping up efforts to increase connectivity and the number of flights to what is repeatedly regarded as the best and easiest to use airport in Ireland, as well as one of the easiest to use in Europe. It has a fantastic brand-new runway, which required the airport to close recently. That runway is capable of taking transatlantic flights and I would love the Minister's Department, in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, to help the management of Cork Airport in their efforts to secure transatlantic flights so we can market the real gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way, which is west Cork.

West Cork is the obvious start to the Wild Atlantic Way. Nowhere else boasts beautiful headlands such as the Old Head of Kinsale, where theLusitaniacommemoration is, or the stunning seaside villages like Courtmacsherry, and Clonakillty with its nearby beaches and heritage, as well as Skibbereen, Glandore, Union Hall, and the Beara and Mizen peninsulas. I could go on. The product is there. It does not need further development and it just needs to be sold internationally.

I would love to see a concerted effort over the winter and into the spring to market and promote our regions. I acknowledge an effort will be made but it has to be concerted because something has happened over the past two years, of which I am sure the Minister will be aware. The months of July, August and September 2021 generated a bumper season for the regions, including west Cork, Kerry and along the western seaboard. This was because we were in a pandemic and people were discovering parts of Ireland they had not discovered before. As overseas travel was not an option, people were discovering places such as west Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Galway, Clare - you name it - and they loved it. Talking to the industry, hoteliers, café owners, and people involved with amenities, they say it was a bumper year. However, for the same period this year, there was a definite drop-off. In many ways, it can be explained by the fact we had a bit of a passport crisis, with approximately 1.6 million passport applications being made. There was pent-up demand for travel and we cannot blame people for that, but it means we need to make a concerted effort to attract people back to the regions, both in the context of domestic tourism where we remind people of the amazing scenery they saw and experiences they had in the summer of 2021, and internationally, where we remind the world of what an amazing place Ireland is, particularly those regional areas, with a focus on west Cork. That strategy needs to be put in place for the winter and spring.

I support the calls in the debate to retain the 9% VAT rate, and I noticed the word "review" may have been used in the budget. I do not want to be disingenuous and give people a false sense of hope, but there is an opportunity to review that decision, especially in light of spiralling energy costs. It does not only affect hotels. We are all contacted by hoteliers, but cafés and small business owners are under pressure too when it comes to energy bills. We need to make Ireland competitive internationally. Now that people can travel again and international flights are back on the agenda, it is about making us competitive internationally. We saw what happened mainly in Dublin. I underline the calls made not to paint everyone with the same brush. West Cork and the regions did not experience the same price hikes. Prices remained stable and competitive as opposed to what we witnessed in Dublin with hotel rates of €400 and €500 per night. That has to be recognised. The Minister fought hard to get the 9% VAT rate in the first place, and she is to be commended on that, but I urge her to continue that fight when it is proposed to revert the VAT rate to 13.5% early next year.

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