Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit os comhair na Seanadóirí. Tá mé an-bhuíoch dó as ucht an cur i láthair a rinne sé. I echo everything Senator Ned O'Sullivan said and he made some really important points. The numbers on tourism are very good and it is a great success. This is down to everybody concerned but, in particular, it is down to the staff in Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, who have done trojan work to develop tourism in Ireland. I was on the board of Fáilte Ireland for a number of years and the effort, commitment, and passion they had and have is absolutely fantastic and we are well served by civil servants.

There were 9.9 million overseas visitors, though the numbers from the UK are down a little. To look at it in purely financial terms, the tax revenue the Irish State gets from tourism is almost €2 billion a year. Some €1.5 billion comes from foreign tourists, so it is critically important for our country. The Minister of State's Department also deals with transport and sport and that is the budget the whole ministry has so it is very important that we do this right, which we do in many areas.

I know the Minister is passionate about tourism and I support him in this area but there are a couple of areas which we should look at. We need, however, to look at the big picture and at where we want to go in tourism. What is our big plan and our strategy and where do we want to be in ten or 20 years' time?What kind of a destination do we want our country to be in ten to 20 years? The Minister of State rightly mentioned our people. The people are at the core of everything we do, particularly from a tourism point of view. Fáilte Ireland has identified this. Visitors come to our shores because of the experience and it is the people who give them the experience. They might go to Florida or other places for a different type of an experience they call Disneyland, but what we have here in Ireland is the real McCoy. As the Minister of State said, let us empower communities to continue to develop what they have done on the Wild Atlantic Way and in other areas. That was visionary from Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland in marketing Ireland worldwide fairly recently.

Transport is a big issue. Metro north is critically important, but I ask that is not done through Scoil Caitríona and the Na Fianna GAA club up along St. Mobhi Road because that community needs to survive as well.

I have a concern and I suggest to the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, that it be addressed. Dublin Airport is growing at a rate of knots, but what about the strategy for Cork Airport, Shannon Airport and the Minister of State's own airport in Kerry? That is hugely important. The Minister of State emphasised the importance of regionality. Airports are, as he will be aware, a key access point for an island community such as ours. In the past month or so, Dublin Airport announced 14 new services plus four new airlines to start serving Dublin Airport, including services to Hong Kong and Beijing. If we are looking for Chinese and eastern tourists coming in there, that is very significant growth. I have a concern, however, about what is happening in the other regions and whether we are creating a situation where everything in terms of the economy is being pushed into Dublin, which is not necessarily good for Dublin Airport or for Dublin as a capital city. We should have a good regional strategy that supports the Shannon, Cork, Kerry and Knock airports.

I will not go back over what was said in any detail about skills but there is a huge shortage in staff skills. There are 150,000 people employed directly in the tourism sector, and between full and part-time, 225,000 people in total are employed. If there are roughly 2 million people in full employment, 11% or 12% of the total employed are employed in tourism.

I mentioned originality and my concern about being too focused. Another area of concern is the majority of these businesses are small and medium-sized, SME, businesses, as the Minister of State will know well in Kerry. We in Galway and other parts of Ireland are trying to emulate the success that Kerry has created. There was significant collaboration in Kerry between everybody directly and indirectly involved in tourism. We need to model the rest of the country on that as much as we possibly can. The bed and breakfast sector needs significant focus. These are very small businesses with, normally, a husband and wife and maybe the family involved. They do not have the resources to market their bed and breakfast in any real effective way. They are a very important part of the future of tourism in Ireland, especially when we are talking about experiences and engagement with people, as highlighted by the Minister of State and by Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland.

Another area of concern in the tourism sector is that we need more joined-up thinking, not in the Department but in other Departments, in the kind of supports that are available across sectors, in particular, for the tourism sector. My feedback from the sector is that it does not quite understand what is available, what is not available, how it is available and how they employ. That needs a co-ordinated approach and I would appreciate it if the Minister of State would consider that.

Another area is foreign exchange. Brexit, the devaluation of the British currency and the effect of that on tourism from the UK was mentioned. In fact, the number of American and European tourists is increasing significantly. British tourism numbers are down since Brexit, but there is evidence that a number of tourists are choosing Ireland instead of the UK who would have gone to the UK in the past. There is some silver lining there for us. As the Minister of State says, we cannot be complacent. We have to give this 110% because the tourism sector is one of the most important, if not the most important, sectors in the country because of the number of SMEs and the number of part-time jobs. As the Minister of State said, when he was in college in Galway, and this happened to all of us, he was making the few bob working during the summer. There are the chances and opportunities as well as the personal development one gets in engaging with foreign tourists and the confidence it gives.