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

NSO 7 is a broad area and the Minister tried to focus on various areas of expenditure. Great work is being done in terms of investments. The Minister probably has no idea which area I will focus on, so I will tell him: tourism. There is supposed to be strategic investment in tourism under NSO 7. This overlaps with investment in sports. I firmly believe that Ireland can put itself in a position to be a leader in Europe and, potentially, the world in terms of outdoor activities and pursuits and adventure tourism, for example, sailing, mountain biking, hiking and whale watching, something in which I have a keen interest. Ireland has it all, but we lack two elements: a strategy for outdoor adventures and becoming the New Zealand of the northern hemisphere; and investment in infrastructure. For whale watching and sailing, we need piers and harbours. For mountain biking, we need trails.

Mine is a general question, but we need to consider this matter seriously in terms of positioning Ireland in Europe.

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