Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and compliment him for his grasp of the brief that he has achieved in the past few months. When one looks at the sport and tourism brief, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan really has a good grasp of it, and it is a credit to him.

This legislation will be important because it lifts the cap on spending. It is probably the first step in ensuring that we can sustain what is a good tourism sector at present. It is about building on the successes of the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland's Ancient East, which have been one of our major success stories in the past few years. That is basically down to the Government commitment. It is basically down to the 9% VAT rate. It is about how we sold the product itself - some Senators mentioned that the product is the people - and we have managed to do that quite effectively. It is about building on that.

The figure the Minister of State mentioned of 8.6 million visitors in the past year is phenomenal, and that is a credit to the policies. Hopefully, the investment that is being proposed here today will strengthen the case so that we can deal with the Brexit issue and deal with the issues around our neighbours and where they are going. That is probably one of the biggest issues out there. The confidence factor in the market, with Brexit and with UK tourists, is an issue that will haunt us for the next few months, if not years.

One of the key issues of the tourism strategy has to be tourist offices. We have a unique network of 32 tourist offices the length and breadth of this country. When we are looking at investing in the infrastructure on the ground, the tourist offices need to be supported. There have been unfortunate cuts in this regard. For instance, Kinsale has only 1.5 whole-time equivalent staff and it would be the sixth busiest tourist office in Ireland. It is open only six days a week. When one considers what tourism is to a town like Kinsale, an investment in staff members in that infrastructure is key because, as some Senators stated earlier, the people are what we are selling. When tourists meet the person at the coalface, he or she has the ability to engage and tell them where to go and ensure that their experience in Ireland is as good as it can be.

This is an important investment. The Minister of State has done a courageous job in the past few months. I commend what he has done and I hope in the investment in the future that he might be able to tie in the tourist offices and the staffing levels there because we need to sell our people who work at the coalface if we possibly can.