Dáil debates
Thursday, 18 April 2024
Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions
Tourism Schemes
10:10 am
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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11. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps being taken by her Department to increase the tourism potential of County Meath. [16807/24]
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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County Meath is blessed with many internationally recognised heritage and historic sites, including Trim Castle, Bective Abbey, the Hill of Tara, Donaghmore Round Tower, Slane Castle, Slane Hill, and Brú na Bóinne, including Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, our own valley of the kings in this country. We also have the Battle of the Boyne site, Mellifont Abbey and Drogheda. This does not even include the likes of Slieve na Calliagh, which is a neolithic tomb site in its own right, yet most of the tourism that happens in our county is a one-day bus tour from a Dublin hotel. We need to make it stickier so that people are in the county for longer. What is the Government doing to do this?
Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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As the national tourism development authority, Fáilte Ireland’s role is to support the long-term sustainable growth in the economic, social, cultural and environmental contribution of tourism to Ireland. Fáilte Ireland works in partnership with the Government, State agencies, local authorities, representative groups and industry to develop tourism across Ireland by creating destination development plans and networks and investing in infrastructure, activities, visitor attractions and festivals.
Fáilte Ireland also provides consumer and buyer insights, mentoring, business supports and training programmes and buyer platforms to help tourism businesses innovate and grow. Fáilte Ireland is also responsible for domestic holiday marketing across four regional experience brands: the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands and Dublin.
County Meath is included in Fáilte Ireland’s new Ireland’s Ancient East Regional Tourism Development Strategy 2023-2027. This roadmap sets out a strategic approach to unlock the commercial potential of the region while ensuring development is sustainable, that benefits accrue to local communities, and that it protects our natural environment. Under the strategy, the ancient destination experience development plan, which includes County Meath, provides a destination-wide tourism development focus, harnessing existing plans and examining new projects to create a world-class destination with "Ancient" as the core development theme. Since the launch of the plan in May 2021, 26 of its 84 projects have been completed and a further 41 are in progress.
Key achievements in 2023 included the completion of a plan to reimagine the Boyne Valley drive and the continued growth of the world class Púca festival, all of which have contributed greatly to an emerging tourism destination. The Púca festival received national funding of €900,000 from Fáilte Ireland to deliver a high-quality cultural festival, contemporary and distinctive from other Halloween events in other cities, all set against the backdrop of a historically authentic setting.
The digital that delivers scheme is a two-year programme that provides participating businesses with training, expert advice, and financial supports to launch key digital projects, develop digital skills and drive more sales through wider online distribution. A total of just over €149,000 in funding has been provided to businesses in Meath under this programme. Meath is also included in the Keep Discovering Campaign 2024, which raises the profile of the county and attracts both national and international visitors.
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Walking and cycling tourism, which I imagine would be supported by the Minister, is becoming exceptionally popular throughout the world. The Santiago de Compostela walk is a perfect example of where people can actually visit cultural and religious heritage sites and walk in the beautiful landscape of Galicia in northern Spain. I believe that this type of tourism will help County Meath. It would mean that tourists are in the county for seven or eight days rather than staying in a Dublin hotel and just tipping up on a bus. The Boyne greenway and such projects would allow this to happen. The proposed Boyne greenway was put into a motion by me when I was on Navan Town Council back in 2007, yet its delivery has been glacial. The Boyne Valley was carved out faster by glaciers than the time taken by the Government to build a cycle and walkway beside it. I ask that the Minister would focus on that particular achievement. It would be the jewel in the crown of the tourism product in County Meath.
Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I agree that the Boyne greenway and Boyne Navigation restoration will be a flagship tourism scheme of regional, national and international significance that will provide access to the wealth and diversity of ecological, cultural, industrial and historical heritage within the Boyne Valley. As well as promotion of and facilitating tourism recreation the greenway will offer an attractive alternative transport choice for commuters through its links with the large towns of Drogheda and Navan and will greatly benefit County Meath's residents and visitors alike. The design aims to integrate a pedestrian and cycle route within sensitive, natural and built heritage sites while achieving a balance between conservation and public uses such as leisure, recreation and tourism.
I believe over the past number of years Meath County Council has been developing a plan to deliver it, which aims to provide a high-quality walking and cycling route and to restore the Boyne Navigation, including the canal sections and associated locks, which are a key feature of the industrial heritage within the Boyne Valley.
With regard to what happens next, now that the public consultation period has ended, the design team will collect and analyse all of the submissions received. These will be summarised and the reported responses to the various themes raised will be issued, and where necessary and proper to do so the emergent preferred route may be modified to reflect the feedback that is received. Once the preferred route is finalised preliminary design will commence where further detail on the exact layout of the greenway will be developed. It is my understanding that additional liaison with land owners will be held throughout this stage of the project and further general public consultations will be held prior to submission of the final planning documents to An Bord Pleanála.
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The Hill of Tara is of enormous significance historically and heritage wise in this country, yet when people go to the Hill of Tara, it is actually very badly managed. Most people are slipping and sliding in muck there and potentially doing damage to the monuments that exist up there. The parking and all of the services are very poor and there definitely needs to be far more work in the development of that. Slieve na Calliagh, is the site of neolithic tombs and is situated outside Oldcastle in Loughcrew. The last time I was there the roof of one of the tombs was being held up by an Acrow prop. It was falling apart at that moment in time. There is absolutely wonderful neolithic art available to touch out there, yet it is falling apart.
The Book of Kells has four parts to it. Kells obviously is part of the history of the Book of Kells and we should look to see how we can actually get one of those volumes into Kells to increase the level of tourism there.
There is also the blueway along the River Boyne. Work has been done to improve the blueway access to it. Blueway tourism itself is a big plus to the locality. We have these enormous and wonderful assets and we are not sweating those assets. Even when we make a decision to go down the route of doing something such as the Boyne greenway after 17 years, there still really has not been a shovel put in the ground in most of the length of it.
Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I gave the Deputy an update on what happens next on that greenway. I will bring his concerns on the other projects or tourism attractions to my officials to link in with Fáilte Ireland. In 2022, networks of clusters along that reimagined Boyne Valley drive were identified. The clusters included Navan, Trim, Slane and Kells. There were sub-clusters aligned to each of these hubs. There were also facilitated workshops last year and an action plan was developed. In quarter 4 last year, each cluster identified an action plan for delivery and some of those plans addressed the issues raised here. These actions now are: the update of the Kells town brochure to provide support for the development of innovative experiences emerging in Kells; the delivery of Slane tear-off maps for distribution to all businesses; supporting the participants at the Púca opening parade in Trim; and industry engagement and activation to support the Navan horse racing weekend in November. The action plans are living documents that will be reviewed annually to ensure actions are prioritised that will lead to greater cohesion to the clusters and to update, develop and support saleable experiences for the domestic and international consumer. I will pass on the Deputy's contribution to my officials to liaise with Fáilte Ireland.