Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to raise the idea of having Irish music added to the UNESCO programme for intangible cultural heritage. By intangible cultural heritage, UNESCO means all kinds of oral traditions of living expression of culture, as opposed to objects and monuments. Music is an obvious and important example of an intangible cultural heritage. I believe that by adding Irish music to the programme, we could have Irish traditional music, or at least some aspects of it, validated as part of UNESCO's list of intangible heritage of the world. If we look to other recent examples, this could have a real impact on cultural tourism here.

I call on the Minister with responsibility for arts to work to ratify the UNESCO convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. Ireland has yet to do so, while 142 other countries have already done so. Ratifying the convention would be the first step towards having Irish music recognised in the UNESCO programme and is worth doing in itself. Once the convention has been ratified, after a short interval of time a country is then in a position to nominate some aspect of its intangible cultural heritage to be inscribed by UNESCO on its list. I believe Irish traditional music should be considered worth nominating.

Portugal was successful last year in applying for its Fado song tradition to be inscribed on the UNESCO list. Following its successful application, there was a huge surge in activity around Fado and cultural tourism in the country. I call for the Minister to look into this as I believe it would be worthwhile for Ireland.

I would like to support Senator Brennan in his comments on tourism. On a related issue, I hope the Government will maintain the 9% VAT rate on tourism services. As Senator Brennan said, some 1.25 million trips to Ireland were taken by individuals between January and March this year, a huge increase which shows The Gathering is having an effect and that sporting events are also having a significant impact. I believe the VAT decrease has been an integral part of the increase in tourism and in leaving tourists with a pleasant taste in their mouths when leaving the country. I call on the Minister to retain the VAT rate at the reduced rate for the coming year.