Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is great that the scheme will be reopened relatively shortly. We underestimate the value of investing in facilities like this, as I said, not alone from a tourism perspective. The Irish Association for Adventure Tourism recently outlined that adventure tourism right now is worth well over €1 billion to the tourism economy. As the Minister pointed out, that is something we will see developing with an extensive network of greenways and blueways being developed right across the country as we speak.

What it also does in leveraging community endeavour and community activism is inspire communities to get behind projects and for people to roll up their sleeves to do local fundraising and have this great sense of pride in the facilities that are developed. It is an opportunity to row in behind communities who ultimately know best what kinds of facilities are needed locally. Those very strong partnerships the Minister is developing with our local authorities across the country will reap major dividends for Ireland in the future.

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