Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tourism is the largest indigenous industry in Ireland and a major driver of regional growth and employment. Visitor accommodation capacity is a key infrastructure element underpinning the tourism offering, located, as it is, in every region and county. The visitor accommodation business provides significant employment, supporting livelihoods, families and sustainable local economies. The programme for Government, Securing Ireland's Future, comprehensively sets out the Government's ambitious plan to strengthen and enhance the tourism sector, ensuring a balanced regional spread of tourism throughout the country, working to develop long-term, sustainable and well-paid careers in tourism, working with local authorities and national bodies to improve public transport options and its infrastructure to key tourism locations making travel more convenient for visitors, conducting a review of the national aviation policy to maximise the use of our airports and through many other focuses.

The Department is pursuing high-quality and high-value outcomes for tourism through the deployment of sound and sustainable policies. Within that policy framework, the Government will make decisions on any proposals emerging from the group examining the Capital City report.

The issue the Deputy has raised in the Chamber this afternoon is one of a number being considered by that working group. The Minister’s expectation is that this group will put forward a suite of topics shortly for the responsible Departments to tease out further and work up into substantive proposals, as appropriate. The Minister has advised that he looks forward to considering any such proposals that reach his desk or to making observations on any other related proposals that are brought to Government by his ministerial colleagues.

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