Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The tourism sector is important to our county of Kerry. The Minister of State spoke about a number of issues regarding the sustainability of the tourism industry. One of the key factors is the issue of the supply of qualified staff. As the Minister of State is well aware, the lack of chefs in the restaurant industry is a key concern. People in my town, in Killarney and throughout Kerry and Dublin must try to get staff from abroad, as far away as Bulgaria and Romania, for the summer season because there simply is not the level of trained staff. This is the case not only with chefs but also in other areas of management and throughout the entire tourism industry. If we are speaking about sustainability from an environmental point of view, we must also look at the fact that we simply do not have enough people to keep the sector going at full capacity.

The Minister of State touched on the fact that other issues affect competitiveness but insurance is affecting the entire sector because it increases costs. There is also the issue of rates. These affect the sustainability of businesses. An initiative introduced during the downturn and supported by the Government is Ireland Reaching Out, a project to bring tourists to lesser known tourist destinations and to every town and village in the country. It is based on the idea of connecting with the diaspora, whereby communities and parishes look at who has left and where they have gone and invites them back. The culmination of this was in The Gathering in 2012 and 2013. People who had attended schools, been members of clubs, involved in organisations and all sorts of community groups in towns and villages got involved and people were invited back. Ireland Reaching Out, which is based in Loughrea, has suffered from a lack of funding and support from the Government. Everywhere from Roscommon to Kildare and places that do not get tourists per seare able to invite people who had left from among the 40 million people in the US and the 75 million around the world. They could find out where they had gone and bring them back. Not only would they come back but future generations would also return once the connection was made. It brings people to the community. It is something that would bring sustainable tourism because it would involve regions that do not normally get tourists and future generations would also come. It should be part of the regional policy.

Many of the initiatives put in place during the downturn, when we needed more tourism and engagement, have been abandoned by the Government. This includes something done here once by Jimmy Deenihan when he was Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora. Legislators who had Irish heritage were invited here. It was a unique form of tourism I must admit. It was not for tourism, it was because once we engage with people and bring them back we are then able to ask them for support and help in future. That initiative was abandoned. Ireland Reaching Out is something with which every parish can get involved in the same way as parishes have success in TidyTowns. When parishes are supported and empowered it means the entire community benefits. Ireland Reaching Out was not mentioned in the Minister of State's speech. It is something that will bring sustainable tourism and not just in areas such as Kerry, Cork, Clare and the more well-known tourist destinations.It would be of benefit to all of them. We talk about the fact that cheaper air fares are a benefit for tourism but they also mean we do not have sustainable environmental policies.. Transportation was kept out of the Paris accord. The fact is that we are allowing so much in terms of transportation that is cheap but it is also impacting on our environment. That is key to sustainable environmental policy. We want more tourists to come in via cheap air fares but, at the same time, we are affecting the environment we wish to protect.

The Minister of State has outlined many of the issues and there are many action plans but I refer to the more practical issues. One matter that comes under sustainable tourism and on which I know the Minister of State receives representations in respect of Killarney and other places is rates. Killarney previously was under the town council but is now being affected by the difference in rates between the old town council and the county council. It is affecting the sustainability and viability of tourism. I would be grateful if the Minister of State would address those issues and if his Department would review Ireland Reaching Out, which was a great initiative. For approximately €6 million in the long term, every parish on the model of the Tidy Towns would be able to benefit from tourism whereas this plan would not.