Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I want to discuss with him the initiative his Department has driven in recent years regarding food tourism. I am talking mainly about the Taste of West Cork and the great success this has been. There is great and wonderful opportunity for us to promote what we have on the island, and food is a major part of that. More can be done in this space. The Taste of West Cork this year, running from Kinsale all the way to Allihies, was a unique success, with every village and town having a food offering, and it brought so many international and national chefs to west Cork. It was an unbelievable success.

We need to promote this angle of what we have on this island. This island has an abundance of food, greenery, and fresh clean water. This is a unique asset. We need to focus on that and to drive an important strategy, whether that is supporting festivals like the Taste of West Cork or even having a national policy to drive that forward. That is an avenue that I can see that people in the town of Kinsale have really caught on to. Last week we had a wonderful food festival there which comes out of the feeling that that is what we are good at and really proud of.

I implore the Minister of State for more funding in that area to support one of our key industries, which is agriculture and natural tourism together. Put together, they are a fantastic success.