John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on current conditions in the Irish tourism industry. It is particularly appropriate to review this as we come to the end of this year's tourist season and take stock of developments during the first five months of the Government's term of office. Since taking up my appointment in early June in the newly constituted portfolio of Arts, Sport and Tourism, I have had extensive consultations with tourism interest groups and reviewed developments with staff in my Department and the principal tourism State agencies. Our general strategy to sustain the medium and long-term growth of the sector is set out in An Agreed Programme for Government and I will be energetically pursuing the individual actions set out in it.

Given the difficult challenges facing the tourism sector over the past two years, my initial work has been focused on a range of issues including freeing up over the summer €3 million for additional front-line marketing activities to generate extra business this year; exhorting the industry to provide better value for money and to improve competitiveness in the light of public criticism this year of pricing and quality levels; supporting Tourism Ireland Limited – the new all island tourism marketing company established under the Good Friday Agreement – in autumn promotional campaigns in the United States and Britain; progressing the preparation of legislation to establish a new national tourism development authority bringing together the functions currently carried out by Bord Fáilte and CERT and putting in place arrangements for a major review of tourism policy.

The tourism industry has now achieved a scale and status as a major player in the Irish economy, generating €4 billion in annual foreign revenue earnings and €1.2 billion in domestic expenditure. Employment in the industry is estimated at 150,000. Visitor numbers, at six million in 2001, have doubled over the past 11 years and foreign revenue earnings have increased threefold over the same period generating estimated annual tax receipts of at least €1.2 billion. The recent ITIC report on the impact of tourism on the Irish economy estimated that capital spending of the order of €4.3 billion at current prices took place during the 1990s with the support of EU and Exchequer funds. This has widened the tourist product base, added an extensive range of public and private attractions and upgraded our access transport infrastructure.