Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, for taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. I would have preferred if she was here. Nevertheless, I know he will carry the messages to her. I slightly refined the message from the Topical Issue matter to say that clearly this office will not close. It seems that Fáilte Ireland will open it for what it determines to be the relevant part of the season, which is June to September. Fáilte Ireland lacks ambition and vision in this, despite its excellent work in marketing our country and in tourism and product development through the years. I do not like to see an organisation like this beginning to move away from being public-facing. If we are going to limit our tourism activities, marketing and tourism information points with trained, expert tourism personnel dealing with the public, I would assume that we are a different country, with some sort of Mediterranean climate, where all the tourism will be coming to our beaches in June, July and August. Of course, that is not our product. What about historical, cultural, sports, archaeological, adventure, activity, music or nature tourism? We need to market all of these all year round.

In the last full year of tourism, we had about 3.6 million first-time visitors to Ireland, with about 5.2 million visitors in total. We are bad at repeat tourism. The key to successful business is repeat custom and holding on to one's customer. One does that in tourism by embracing what is known as place-bonding. People have bonded to a place. They want to go back to Newcastle West in Limerick, Kildare, Sligo or Dublin because they have had personal interaction with professionals.

We are bad at repeat business. Less than one third of our custom in tourism comes back to us. Repeat visitors are where people power and people interaction help to build place bonding.

Another thing we dismiss is the need for people to interact. I will quote from a publication by Fáilte Ireland. Regarding our domestic market, it states "the high existing level of domestic tourism consumption by Irish residents, limits the potential for further growth from domestic demand". In other words, we ignore it. This is also a fool's errand because we export 40 million bed nights per year. I would like to have a few of those in the Ceann Comhairle's County Kildare, the Minister of State's County Limerick and my county, Sligo, and that takes work. We need public-facing offices, not automated machines. Nobody went or returned to Disneyland based on an overwhelming online welcome. It is personal interaction that the Irish céad míle fáilte, a hundred thousand welcomes, is based on. Fáilte Ireland, despite its brilliant work for which it is globally famous, is now putting its back to the public and deciding that we have "seasonality", which limits the potential and lacks the vision and ambition of Seán Lemass's setting up of the regional tourism organisations in 1964, under the second economic plan, with T. K. Whitaker. Why are we pulling back from that vision now? Why are we seeking to put this online?

I want the Minister of State to relate to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, the fact that in our region in particular, the north west, tourism is the sector with the most growth potential and the opportunity to produce jobs and revenue faster.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy MacSharry for raising this issue. I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin.

I should clarify the respective roles of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and its agency Fáilte Ireland in respect of national tourism development. The Department's role lies primarily in the area of national tourism policy development and in securing resources to assist the tourism agencies in implementing that policy. In line with its tourism development remit, Fáilte Ireland is responsible for developing and promoting the tourism potential of the various counties and regions around the country.

The operation of tourism information offices is a matter for Fáilte Ireland. Historically, Fáilte Ireland has provided tourism information to visitors mainly through a network of fixed buildings known as tourism information centres. Pre-Covid, Fáilte Ireland had commenced a review of how it shares tourism information nationwide with visitors, both online and in person. The review identified a need and an opportunity for Fáilte Ireland to introduce a new and comprehensive plan in response to changing consumer behaviours, digital trends and declining visitor numbers to tourism information offices. In transforming how it distributes tourism information to visitors, Fáilte Ireland's new plan is responding to the global digital demand.

Expanding the reach of Fáilte Ireland's tourism information in Sligo will directly boost the local economy and opportunities for all local businesses. Some 85% of visitors to the tourism information centre in Sligo are international, with the majority of the footfall during the busy four-month summer season from June to September. Therefore, a decision was taken to operate the tourism information centre in Sligo seasonally, from June to September, from 2022. The new plan focuses on expanding the range of tourism information. This will be done through maximising local digital information and resources on discoverireland.ieand installing a number of local high-impact tourism information kiosks in a number of high-footfall Sligo locations, including Mammy Johnston's, Strandhill, and Johnston Court Shopping Centre. The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, understands that discussions are ongoing with Sligo County Council and industry stakeholders on additional tourism information kiosks. A significant map distribution network will also be established, with an unprecedented countrywide reach, in addition to a call centre, which will be operational seven days a week.

In 2022 Fáilte Ireland will also relaunch a successful local experts programme, including the Sligo local experts programme. This programme empowers front-line tourism and hospitality staff to promote their local areas to visitors. There will also be a significantly enhanced web presence for Sligo town and County Sligo, with 319 attractions, activities and places currently listed on discoverireland.ie. This content is managed by Fáilte Ireland's tourism information centre staff.

Investment in tourism in County Sligo is at an all-time high, from private investors to public investment by Fáilte Ireland and other agencies in a new surf centre in Strandhill and beach facilities at Rosses Point and Inniscrone. This investment in Sligo will significantly enhance the overall visitor experience and provide new business opportunities in the local community.

I will bring the points Deputy MacSharry has raised to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, after the debate.

Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge that the Minister of State is answering on behalf of the Minister.

If Fáilte Ireland decides to open the office for only three weeks, the footfall will be there for only three weeks. I am ambitious for our country. I am ambitious for Newcastle West, Limerick, Kildare, Sligo, Donegal and every other place. We are open 365 days a year, 12 months of the year. One would swear from the response the Minister of State read out that this is all about beaches. Of course, we have those in many places in Ireland. Certainly, in Sligo we have them in abundance. The Minister of State mentioned Strandhill, where I live. We also have an awful lot of other attractions but, as an organisation, Fáilte Ireland has decided there is no point in opening the office except for a couple of months in the summer.

There is another thing I wish to take issue with. The Minister of State said that "the Department's role lies primarily in the area of national tourism development and in securing resources" in that regard. I know this is not necessarily the Minister of State's fault but increasingly, Ministers stand up in here and say something is an operational matter for the Garda, Fáilte Ireland, the Higher Education Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland - everybody but the Government. In my 20 years in the Houses of the Oireachtas, I cannot be called crazy for asking the question, what is it governments do now? Are they merely the communications unit for State agencies and senior civil servants? If I know one thing, it is that the people who voted for the Minister of State, the Ceann Comhairle, me and others sent us up here to try to have some level of influence on policy in order that the public and the people who pay our wages might identify and feel some sense of ownership of the national policy platform borne out of their lived experience and suggestions in life. I am not sure tonight's response captures that.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy answered his last question himself. He asked what the Government's role is and if it relates to policy. I answered that question. The first sentence in my initial response was that the role of the Department relates primarily to policy. I am a former Minister of State in the Department with responsibility for tourism. The role of the Department is the formulation of policy and Fáilte Ireland's role is as a national vehicle for the implementation of policy. Tourism Ireland's role is as a vehicle for the delivery of policy internationally on a cross-Border basis. The Minister's role is not the direction of day-to-day traffic within Fáilte Ireland. The Minister's role relates primarily to legislation, policy and, on an annualised basis, the drawing down of Exchequer funds to make sure Fáilte Ireland can deliver to Strandhill, Rosses Point, Inniscrone, Sligo town and all the other towns and villages. If the Minister were not focused on that, I am sure Deputies such as Deputy MacSharry would have something entirely different to say. If he were to say that the Minister was micromanaging Fáilte Ireland, we would all have something entirely different to say in that the Minister could be accused of managing four mice at the crossroads. That is not the role of the Minister. It is not the role of the Minister to grease parish pumps. It is the role of the Minister to outline a vision for the development of tourism over a five-year, ten-year or 15-year period to make sure that the maximum number of people visit this country internationally and, in the first instance, nationally, that the greatest number of people possible can get employment around the country and that we can have the greatest amount of economic benefit from that as is possible. Looking over recent years and successive Ministers with responsibility for tourism, that is where our primary focus has been. It is not fair that the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, should be criticised for just doing her job.