Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

Is that all? Good God above in heaven. This topic is one the Leas-Chathaoirleach would have liked to discuss because he sought a debate on it a number of times but unfortunately he is precluded now from doing so because of time restraints.

I welcome the Minister of State and join in the calls for the speedy recovery of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Cullen, from his back problems.

There is no doubt there has been a tremendous fall off in tourist visitor numbers and a reduction of revenue, especially in the past two years. At its peak, the economic value of the tourism industry was €6.5 billion, with more than 300,000 people employed in the industry in 2007. Tourism revenue dropped by €1.1 billion in 2009, with the lowest figure since 2004. Overseas visitor numbers fell by close to 1 million in 2009 compared to the previous year. The worrying aspect is that our largest tourism market, the United Kingdom, declined by over 16%, which is a big worry to everybody.

I shall not reiterate what my colleague, Senator Coghlan, stated in regard to the Irish Hotels Federation annual conference, the report from Dr. Peter Bacon and the points made. I do not know if Senator Coghlan mentioned the departure tax which is also a major problem and has been highlighted by all involved in the tourism industry. There should be a serious re-think in that area.

There is a serious credit flow crisis and the level of debt facing the sector as a result of the economic downturn is affecting tourism businesses badly. These are, primarily, small and medium-sized enterprises. The Irish small and medium-sized enterprises association, ISME, published a report this week which shows that 55% of companies which applied for funding in the past three months were refused credit by their banks. Some 80% of SMEs stated that banks are making it more difficult to access finance. The restaurant sector alone warned that one in three businesses are at risk of closing which would result in an estimated 21,000 job losses and a €700 million annual loss in tax revenue.

My party has a number of propositions and policy proposals in the area of tourism. One such was mentioned, namely, the reduction of local authority rates and the freezing of Government and local authority charges and energy charges. We would certainly support that. Immediate efforts should be made to abolish the airport departure tax. We also need to reduce the 13.5% VAT rate on hotel accommodation and restaurants to 10%. Many areas around-----