Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I thank the Leader for organising this debate. It is not often he is thanked from all sides of the House but he has clearly gone out of his way to ensure this important debate is held. I also thank the Minister of State for his attendance at such short notice.

This week saw the announcement that there were 435,000 of our fellow citizens without work. We must focus on the areas in which we do well to grow the economy and create jobs. Two ways of doing this are through investing in green energy, an issue we have discussed on previous occasions and will discuss again, and developing the number of jobs in tourism. We must use the beauty of our country and the warmth of our people as natural resources to attract additional visitors. We can do this by increasing our efforts in the eco-tourism part of the market. Many go on walking holidays elsewhere in Europe and further afield several times a year. We do not get as much of this growing market as we should. There are various reasons, including issues relating to the right to roam across certain lands, lack of signposting and general rights of way. Ireland is not as attractive as it could be to the walking fraternity. There are also problems with property rights and insurance. The Minister, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, has tried to make progress in improving the situation and opening land to ramblers and bona fide walkers but more could be done. It is a sector of the tourism industry that would be easy to grow if we were prepared to go the extra mile to tap into it.

The second area concerns cycling, into which we need to put more effort. Once again, there are issues regarding signposting in rural parts of the country, as well as the state of the rural road network which is probably unsafe. I recommend to many cyclists not to go out onto the roads at the current time because they can only cycle in the middle of the road, which is not very safe, and the edge of the road often disappears or there are potholes. We need to consider how we can retain the number of cycling tourists which currently come here, bearing in mind the state of the road network.

We also need to examine growth areas such as the surfing community. Many of our coastal areas are particularly well suited to surfing. If one wants to see the impact it can have on community, one should visit Newquay in Cornwall which was once quite depressed economically but has been transformed by the advent of surf tourism. Many coastal areas in Donegal and further south are very well suited and we should consider how we can attract the younger fraternity to our shores.

Another area we can grow is heritage tourism. I am lucky; I come from the heritage capital of Ireland and see, on a regular basis, how it can help to create jobs in the local community. One of Ireland's world heritage sites, Newgrange, is on my doorstep. It attracts 250,000 people every year, many of whom come from outside Ireland and come to Ireland because Newgrange is the number one attraction. The heritage site for the Battle of the Boyne is also located in Meath, which former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, opened a number of years ago. It attracts 100,000 people from north and south of the Border. By investing in projects such as that, including the Boyne canal, we could attract even more people. In investing in our heritage sites, we could help to grow the number of people who come to our shores.

It is not just about capital investment. We should also be more innovative about how we do things. Organisations such as Oideas Gael in Donegal put on courses in the Irish language and attract people, not just from the city who want to escape to Donegal for a week or two but from all over Europe and the world, who have some interest in Irish culture and language, and come to spend their hard-earned money keeping local communities employed. We can do innovative things to try to grow our tourism industry.

I have seen first-hand how some countries, such as New Zealand, use innovation to attract people. New Zealand is probably the adrenaline capital of the world. It has activities such as zorbing. Where can one go zorbing in this country? There may be one or two places where one can do it, but I am not aware of them. We could consider this. I visited a prawn farm in New Zealand. To earn extra money it rented out golf clubs and one could take a pot shot with a ball into the lakes containing the prawns. If one was not interested in looking at the prawns, one could practice one's golf swing. Little things like that can help to add value and generate local funds for the tourism industry.

St. Patrick's Day is the week after next. Many people will complain about the amount of money spent by Ministers in travelling abroad. I must put my hands up and say mea culpa because in the past I have complained about excesses in expenditure during the time of St. Patrick's Day. I have been convinced by the arguments made on how important it is that we, as a nation, get out there and sell ourselves. I am convinced that very few countries have the access our Ministers have, even for one day a year, because of St. Patrick's Day. The English have St. George's Day, which is not noted at all across the rest of the world. Scotland has St. Andrew's Day, which hardly gets a mention. St. Patrick's Day is known worldwide and we need to use it in order to sell this country, in particular in these years of economic recession.

I welcome the fact that in two weeks' time most of our senior Ministers will be going away to sell the country. I caution against spending too much and spending on hotel rooms costing €2,000 or €3,000 a night cannot be defended. It is vital that they go and sell the country in this day and age. We can all do our bit. In America some 40 million people claim some Irish heritage. Now, more than ever, it is important that we try to attract many of those people to our shores as tourists. We all have a responsibility to make a phone call to Irish Americans we know or get messages out there in any way we can to encourage as many people as possible who claim to have some Irish heritage and may never have visited these shores to come here this year and that we need their visits now more than ever.

I thank the Leader for organising this debate at short notice. There are areas in which we can grow the market. Senator Quinn referred to China. There are now 200 million middle class Chinese citizens, which is approximately half the size of mainland Europe. It is a huge market. The Russian economy has recently faltered but it had tremendous growth over the past 15 years, through its gas and oil fields. The exchange rate in Brazil has become more favourable by approximately 20%. There is also an emerging middle class in India. Those countries and others should be targeted by our Government.

The McCarthy report recommended closing some embassies, but perhaps we should consider opening more embassies or consulates in areas where we hope to gain from extra tourists. For example, I understand we do not have an embassy in Thailand.