Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

What the Minister said in the last couple of sentences, in relation to finalising plans for 2026, is timely. This is a great way of improving tourism and visitor numbers. As we all know, tourism figures are down this year and there are various reasons for that. Some of it is due to high prices being charged by some hotels and over-pricing, and the industry has to take that on board. The first homecoming festival was organised in Laois this year and it was a huge success. It took place on 4, 5 and 6 September. A lot of voluntary work and commitment go into these festivals and it is an area we need to target in terms of economic and tourism benefits. It also has community and family benefits, because people who had not seen each other for 50 years, in some cases, met again for the first time. The route to securing funding needs to be simplified. I take on board the point about the LEADER programme but it tends to be set. There are a lot of calls on it. A separate stream of funding needs to be made available for this.

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