Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire. Ní raibh seans agam comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis as a phost nua sa Rialtas.

I wish to raise a number of items, the first of which is the quality of tourism statistics. Good quality data is really important for tourism policy planning and for making progress in determining where Government resources should go in tourism. There has been an issue, as highlighted in the media recently, in this regard. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, does good work in this area but there is a bit of a dispute as to what is the right data in terms of tourism. The Government has a responsibility to try to resolve this. We should explore ways to enhance the quality of our tourism statistics. We need to get good quality data that we can act on. We also need to see better collaboration between the CSO and Revenue Commissioners which already collects data from tourism businesses. The Minister mentioned Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, both of which have a role to play there. Tourism is almost like an export business because it involves people from abroad, in the main, coming in and it is very important to reach into the regional economies in Ireland.

The second item is the tourist tax, a matter of quite a bit of debate at the moment as the Minister knows. A tourist or bed tax is becoming more and more common across the world. We have a report from the capital city taskforce which has to be funded and implemented and the tourist tax could play an important role in that regard. It is a common tool used across Europe in particular. On regional tourism, my area of Dublin Bay North has Howth, Bull Island, Dollymount, St. Anne's Park, the Casino in Marino and Fairview Park. It has lots of good, local attractions but the city of Dublin's tourism is very much events-based in the city centre. It would be useful to look at supporting suburban tourism around Dublin, not just around the country but in parts of Dublin and to develop strategies in that regard.

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