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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 26 and 41 together.

The arrival of refugees from the war in Ukraine, combined with the high number of international protection applicants, has resulted in the largest humanitarian effort in the State's history. The national response to this challenge is underpinned by an all-of-government approach. As I said earlier, in February last year, we were accommodating 8,300 people. We are now accommodating 83,520 people, which is equivalent to the population of Galway city. As the Deputy knows, serviced accommodation within the tourism sector, hotels primarily, have been to the fore in meeting this immediate need.

Demand for Irish tourism, both from abroad and at home, is really strong. The sector, supported by the Government, has shown great resilience in rebuilding after Covid-19. However, I am concerned about the potential downstream impacts on strategic tourism businesses due to the removal of one third of registered tourism accommodation from the tourism market. I have expressed this concern, Obviously, there are concerns with regard to visitor attractions, activity providers, hospitality and retail. They all rely to a greater or lesser extent on visitors having a place to stay, as the Deputy knows. As I said earlier and as other Deputies have said in this Chamber, every €1 spent on tourism accommodation equates to €2.50 that will be spent in the local economy on visitor attractions, tourism support services, hospitality and retail. I have consistently raised my concerns with Government colleagues on this matter. While anecdotal evidence is emerging of the impacts on downstream tourism businesses, I have asked my officials and Fáilte Ireland to do further work on this issue as we approach and near peak season. That work will focus on emerging trends and the areas that are most affected by the loss of tourism accommodation. It will examine possible mitigation measures that could be considered if the scale of the impact is sufficient to warrant this.

We have invested heavily in this sector, which is a key employer of scale in large parts of the country. Many communities across the country are heavily reliant on it. We have continued to invest to ensure there is a strong pool of tourism attractions, activity providers and related tourism businesses. While it is to be hoped that these mitigation measures will not be needed, it is only prudent that we do the examination now and be ready to move if measures are required. We invested heavily in putting supports in place during Covid-19. We did not do that to lead to them to fail now. I am cognisant of keeping the supports in place. It is only prudent to assess this. Any mitigation will need to have hard data behind it. As I have said, we developed strong experience during the pandemic of the types of targeted measures.

We are not starting from zero. We saw what worked for these key strategic tourism businesses during the pandemic to help them trade and survive. Business continuity supports similar to those that we funded and Fáilte Ireland rolled out may have to be considered if it is clear that a loss of tourism footfall in specific areas is leading to significant reductions in trade and turnover. We might have to consider other innovative measures that can assist the worst affected tourism businesses and allow them to survive during the current challenges. I did, of course, secure continued additional funding for tourism in budget 2023, totalling €30 million, of which €15 million is for the overseas marketing of Ireland. As global competition heightens, sustained and extensive marketing campaigns will be vital to support the ongoing recovery effort. Ensuring the resilience and growth of this demand is vital to the industry, to jobs and, indeed, to communities across the length and breadth of this country. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, and I co-chair the hospitality and tourism forum. We will engage through that forum, a meeting of which we hope to have in the coming weeks.

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