Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the positive news for the tourism sector in the figures published by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, which show there being a record number of tourists to this country last year. There were approximately 10.6 million visitors, with significant increases in the North American market. This is important because tourism is a critical part of the economy. With this in mind, I ask that we invite the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in, particularly to debate how we might keep the momentum going but to debate the potential ramifications and proposals to curtail the operation of Airbnb. It is not an area that we debate often. I believe Airbnb has played a significant role in encouraging tourists to come into the country and making accommodation available and there needs to be a full debate about that.

Obviously, Brexit is of grave concern, as is the potential further fall in the value of sterling arising from it and the spending power of the British market to come here. I note that the increase in visitors from Britain this year was only 1%. It was one of the lowest growth areas for tourism, which is disappointing. The most important element, which I welcome, is the progress and the growth in the tourism sector.

There are rural areas which are underdeveloped and have considerable tourism potential. The challenge, for Tourism Ireland and the different agencies that are given the responsibility of developing tourism, is to go to the areas, such as north Mayo, which has considerable potential on the Wild Atlantic Way. Once one hits Westport, one is not as inclined to travel north of that. The Minister must ensure that there is proper promotion given to these areas that need a boost and put in proper tourism infrastructure, by which I mean tourist information offices. For example, in Ballina, the tourism office is run on a shoestring and needs further support to run in the professional manner necessary to support the region. These are pertinent issues because tourism is often one of the few alternatives for employment in rural areas. I ask the Leader to look at this as something that we might deal with in early course and have the Minister in.