Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to respond to each of the Senators who have shown up and, in fairness, put a bit of thought into their contributions, and I thank them for it.

Starting off with my near neighbour, I agree entirely with Senator Ned O'Sullivan regarding the initiatives that have been taken in Kerry. I was due to launch the Kerry tourism strategy but, unfortunately, on the same day the late Anthony Foley was being laid to rest and, as Minister for sport, I had to attend the funeral.

A number of Senators have raised the issue regarding local authorities in their local areas. I am meeting the County and City Management Association later on. From the day that I was appointed as Minister of State, I have felt strongly about this. The last speaker, Senator Lombard, alluded to it as well in relation to tourist offices. Local authorities have a much greater role and I will be expecting a much greater role from them. I will be communicating to them today that I expect over the next number of months that every local authority in the country will develop a tourism strategy. In that regard, I need city and county managers, the CEOs, to be proactive rather than reactive. It is a requirement under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 that tourism is no longer to be viewed as something that a local authority might do. Tourism is now viewed as something that one must do as a local authority.

I am delighted that the Kerry CEO is as proactive as she is - I have met her and many other CEOs - but there are some who are not proactive. The way I will view it will be very simple. CEOs of local authorities and local authority members have to rise to the mark in their contribution from tourism. Over the next number of months I will be bringing all the CEOs together. We will launch every one of the local authority tourism strategies. These strategies will not be dust-gatherers because I will expect my officials from the Department who are here today from Killarney to assess the implementation of these strategies and seek updates from local authorities on a regular basis.

Senator Lombard mentioned an issue that is close to my own heart to do with tourist offices. There is a local authority office at almost every crossroads in the country now. Every large or medium-sized town has a local authority office. There is nothing stopping local authorities grasping the Local Government Reform Act 2014 and saying they will fill the vacuum here, and some local authorities are doing that. Our local authority offices need to be more than merely a place where people who require local authority services go. They are the front of house in terms of Ireland's image for the visitor coming into a provincial or small town. Local authorities will have to start looking at their network of offices to see what facilities and services they can make available in them.

Senators Ned O'Sullivan and O'Mahony mentioned the need for hotel rooms in Dublin, and I agree entirely. I met the Irish Hotels Federation. We had all of the financial institutions in at a meeting recently.We are due to meet Dublin City Council and we will also meet in the coming weeks with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government with a view to seeing whether there are specific issues that are blocking the pipeline in terms of the delivery of badly needed hotel rooms. It is an issue I am very conscious of. I come from a rural location and I see at first hand the issues that exist.

Several Senators mentioned the skills shortage. When I was appointed as Minister of State, education and training boards were given the freedom and the initiative to look at the skills deficit in their own area. I have to compliment the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, which has established an initiative to look at deficits in training in its own area, specifically the skills shortage in the tourism and hospitality industry. I would view this as best practice. What I have decided to do, with my Department, is to ask that other education and training boards be brought before the Tourism Leadership Group, which I chair, and that we would share information as best practice. We do not need to go off establishing another quango or reinventing the wheel. If chefs and tourism and hospitality staff can be trained in the ETB in Roxborough in Limerick, it can be done everywhere and we should be able to meet the skills deficit. There is a requirement under the legislation that ETBs would do that and I will be seeking to make sure under the Action Plan for Jobs and the Regional Action Plan for Jobs that this is done.

Senator Ó Donnghaile mentioned the all-island aspect of this issue. I could not agree more. I was in attendance at the World Travel Market in London with Tourism Ireland during the week. To me, selling Ballymena is every bit as important as selling Bandon and I do not differentiate between them. Ten million people visited the island of Ireland last year. What we want to do is make sure we contribute to employment growth. Some 8.6 million visited south of the Border and, in fairness, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Fáilte Ireland do a very good job within their remit under the umbrella body, Tourism Ireland. I had a very good meeting with the chair of Tourism Ireland, Brian Ambrose, yesterday in Belfast when I was there for the launch of the women's rugby world cup. As Senator O'Mahony said, sports tourism is part of my brief, and that is why I am anxious and hopeful we get the rugby world cup in 2023. Every time somebody comes up from Mayo or Kerry to an all-Ireland final, or from Limerick, the odd time they are here, that is domestic tourism. Those sporting occasions, such as on Saturday, when Ireland play Canada - we hope they have a victory like they had in Chicago - are domestic tourism. Again, the two things go hand in hand.

The Senator also mentioned Brexit. I view the three greatest threats to the Irish tourism industry as being Brexit, political instability and uncompetitiveness. Unfortunately, we do not have a role in terms of putting a floor under the value of sterling as that is governed by forces outside our control. The offering in the Lake District in England, in Wales and in Scotland is going to be far more inviting to the British tourist than it was heretofore. We have a challenge, which is competitiveness. As we can do nothing to influence the value of sterling, we need to make sure we have competitive prices, that people are well looked after and that we send them home looking forward to coming back again and, more important, telling their friends and family we want them back again.

We need a stable political environment in which to do that. For example, some in this House opposed the 9% VAT rate in a recent budget proposal which would have decimated rural and provincial hotels, restaurants and tourism attractions. I could not stand such over a situation. Dublin is in a very strong position but Donegal, where I was on holidays, and Waterford, which I also visited during the summer, are not. I agree with Senator Grace O'Sullivan that Waterford has a great offering. In addition, there is nothing stopping Cork County Council, in regard to the coast from Kinsale to the county border close to Youghal, agreeing with Waterford County Council, in regard to the coast from there to Dunmore East, and then with Wexford County Council, to do something like what is being done on the Shannon Estuary between Limerick and Clare.

To go back to my original point, we need our local authorities to be far more imaginative. There is a fantastic asset between Dungarvan and Waterford city, the greenway, which is being funded by my Department. I want to see more of that. However, I have pulled up the handbrake in regard to greenways recently because I want to see a national strategy developed whereby we would have a national map of Ireland and greenways would not start in the middle of nowhere and end in the middle of nowhere. Greenways should start in a location where people can get off a bus and take a bike for a cycle, then get back on a bus or train. With regard to Senator Ned O'Sullivan's home place, we are very anxious to have the great southern trail cross what is almost the Rio Grande into north Kerry and then take it on to Listowel. I hope that can happen, but in order for it to happen, we need local authorities to do the Part 8 work, undertake the consultations, talk to landowners and agree a platform on the way forward. I hope to do that over the next number of months. We will launch a public consultation shortly in regard to the development of greenways. It is one of the issues I feel very strongly about.

Senator O'Mahony referred to Knock Airport, which is rightly close to his heart. Shannon Airport and Kerry Airport are close to my heart and Cork Airport has a very important role, as do the seaports of Rosslare Harbour and Cork. We want to maximise the number of people who come into Ireland at provincial locations. One of the ways we can do that is by encouraging the tour operators, particularly coach and bus operators, to start looking at locations other than Dublin. We cannot force them not to come to Dublin but, if they want to come to the capital city, as Senator O'Mahony rightly said, we at least need to try to get them out into the regions as quickly as possible. To do that, however, a visitor attraction is needed. That is why we have brought forward this Bill and we have lifted the cap on spending up to €300 million.

We have been criticised for not doing enough but there is currently a grant scheme available of €125 million and we are particularly encouraging local authorities and State agencies to apply. Frankly, when a local authority sends in an application for a grant to do something in their local area and it does not include a feasibility study, it is very difficult to give grant-aid due to the spending rules that have to be adhered to. Leader companies will also have a role and they have to rise to the mark. The Department and Fáilte Ireland cannot do everything. What we are doing is putting in place a structure that will empower people at local level to look at the success of the Wild Atlantic Way and the success that Ireland's Ancient East will be, and ask how their community can grab onto that. This is why, in my own area, we have developed a driving route that will start in Loop Head and finish in Foynes, as Senator Ned O'Sullivan said.

This is enabling legislation. At some stage in the future, I would like to come back to the House for a general discussion with Senators on how we can develop this product. While there are constraints, who would have thought, when this country was banjaxed in 2008, that the two industries we would have turned to in order to drag us out of the mire, agriculture and tourism, would have delivered the return they have? Tourism has come up to the plate. I want to take this opportunity to thank the people working in the tourism and hospitality sector, my Department officials in Killarney and Dublin, the staff of Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. They do a great job and we work collectively but there is a responsibility that I will now shove over on top of local authorities. They are going to have to do more and I would expect they will do more. I ask the Members of Seanad Éireann to support me in that. I know how close they are to the councillors around the country. I would encourage Senator Ned O'Sullivan in the discussions he has on his grand tour of Ireland, although I hope he does not have to embark on it soon.