Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I was alerted to a Government-backed publication, Ireland's Ancient East, which is supported by the Office of Public Works. I was disappointed that the illustration fails to recognise County Monaghan. It is included on the map but they have decided to rename it as Armagh, which is very disappointing. Some people may see the humour in that but it is very disappointing that counties like Monaghan, Cavan and others along the Border, which do their best to attract tourism, find that Departments let the side down.

Along with the 4.5% VAT increase in the budget, people in the Border counties are very disappointed with the outlook. Tourism figures have increased by 5% countrywide, but if we drill down, we see that in the six southern Border counties, the figure has decreased by 12% and 16% in some cases. The Government talks about preparing for Brexit but Brexit has been with us in the Border counties for quite some time and we deal with it daily. We are trying to cushion business from the effects but the VAT blow for the hospitality sector is very serious and the reasons for doing it fail me at this moment. I appreciate that Government has to find revenue, but surely the sensible thing to do, with Brexit on the horizon, would be to stall the process until we see what happens. I wish to highlight my disappointment at the Border counties being forgotten yet again and I ask the Leader to ask his colleagues in the Cabinet to consider that the Border counties are in a unique position and deserve to be treated differently from the rest of the country.