Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a beautiful country to visit. My friends from New Zealand want to get married on the River Nore in Kilkenny.

To touch on some of the negatives, one is the overarching government policy. We need co-opetition among departments, a realigning of Ministries and to pull it all together in order that we can be powerful when it comes to this area. I would also mention the EPA, and I note Senator Landy is present. The EPA upsets me greatly with respect to tourism. There is a blanket immunity around the EPA and I cannot get into that issue now, but the Minister and I know that factories and businesses, which affect our environment, have been allowed into this country. Tourists would not come to this country if they knew about the likes Aughinish in Limerick or what is going on in Portlaoise. We must lift the blanket immunity around the EPA and recognise that with respect to every decision of the IDA on foreign direct investment, the granting of licences by the EPA affects our future in terms of attracting visitors and our tourism.

I heard the Minister mention a great man, Michael Carey. The Minister said, "The key difference in the new policy is that its supports will be weighted towards investment that is complimentary to the brand proposition such as the Wild Atlantic way". I welcome that vision. I am mindful of Michael Carey who gives so freely of his time, and he has done an amazing job with Bord Bia. One of Bord Bia's initiatives was Food Works, where Teagasc, Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia, on foot of co-opetition among departments, came together and went all over Ireland advertising our products. Those involved found brilliant young entrepreneurs and some fantastic businesses have come together as a result and will realise valuable exports. Will the Minister talk to Michael Carey and the other brilliant entrepreneurs he mentioned to examine if we could develop a tourism works initiative and get tourism entrepreneurs to come together with either marketing or tourism initiatives whereby we could achieve in the tourism area what Bord Bia has done in its Food Works initiative? It would involve attracting young people with ideas and fast-tracking and upscaling their ideas to make them a reality.

I will move on to the heritage sector and I want the Minister to convey my comments to the Government as I appreciate this sector does not come under his remit. On 5 June in Kilkenny, the chief executive officer of the Heritage Council of Ireland launched the 20-year celebration of the Heritage Council. Our heritage attracts 90% of tourists. The chief executive officer stated, "Levels of public interest in, and engagement with, natural and built heritage have increased significantly over the past 15 years". He also stated, "the fact that the council has a fund of just €547,000 to disburse [nationally means] ... that only a third of the 612 applications, from community groups all over the country, could receive any [investment]...". We use to give €20 million to Heritage Council and now we give it only €7 million. We all know for certain that heritage is one of the main reasons people visit this country. England is our next door neighbour and we know what a fantastic job the National Trust does. The Minister, together with his Cabinet colleagues must, as a matter of urgency, put together a meaningful budget and by that I mean adding two zeros to the current allocation of €7 million. We all talk about The Gathering and what a great success it was. Why could 2016 not be the start of a five-year period in Ireland called the "restoration period" and why could a meaningful budget not be put in place to restore our heritage sites? Many of us went to the briefing in Buswells and some super young people are working in the heritage sector. One young man has been working in Kilkenny and Youghal, but there are many other towns. What about Athy and Carrick on Suir? To take the example of Athy, the Shackleton Museum is a project we are trying to get up and running there. The museum exhibitions span the Gordon Bennett route, the First World War and the Shackleton heritage. Shackleton is a world brand. That museum has managed to get Ulf Bakke in Norway to agree to sell, at a nominal price, Shackleton's cabin that he slept in on his ship. Its budget from the Heritage Council is €42,000. The museum curator, Margaret Walsh, works tirelessly; it is now June and she works for nothing for the rest of the year. We could all tell the Minister stories. We need co-opetition; we need to get everybody together and to provide a meaningful budget for this sector.

With respect to Fáilte Ireland's website, one would wonder if there are any cities in Ireland other than Dublin. We have the Wild Atlantic Way, the Ancient East heritage, which is wonderful, and Dublin, but what about Waterford, Galway, Cork, Limerick and - as we are one island - Belfast? We need to get all their names up there. We need to set up the portals and to promote the festivals and the sporting events. I could go on because I have many ideas to put to the Minister about adventure tourism, business tourism and educational tourism, touching on what Senator Quinn said, and agri-tourism, and we can steel ideas in these areas from around the world. We have one of the greatest brands in Ireland but rather than I boring the Minister saying we need to gather ourselves together, what we need is to get one strong pillar in the Government to get our act together and ensure the area is properly funded as opposed to the joke in terms of current funding. I was the first person to bring up Russborough House and the Beit Foundation paintings.