Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus gabhaim buíochas léi as an ráiteas cuimsitheach atá leagtha amach aici dúinn inniu. Tá mé fíordhíograiseach ó thaobh cúrsaí turasóireachta de, go háirithe nuair a chuireann siad lenár bpobal agus lenár n-eacnamaíocht. The Minister is very welcome to the Seanad and I wish her well during her term of office. She will be aware that Sinn Féin proposed to give a voucher to every man, woman and child in the State. The staycation voucher plan would have given €200 to every adult and €100 to every child to ensure everyone can avail of a helping hand to enjoy a holiday this year. Sinn Féin’s plan would have put money directly into the pockets of people who would then have put the money into the tills across the State. This would have given a much-needed boost and lift to our tourism sector. The plan was simple, effective and costed.

Unfortunately, the Government's stay and spend approach will exclude those on low pay, carers, the vast majority of pensioners and people who have lost work during this crisis, all of whom are in desperate need of a break. There were high expectations within the hospitality industry that the July stimulus package would lift the pressure on those who work in the industry. Unfortunately, the Government has dashed those hopes. Another flaw in the Government's plan is that it only runs from October to April. This means that school-age children are excluded, as they take their holidays during the summer.

Given the new normal, we understand that we need to stimulate the tourism industry on this island to generate as much return to the sector and to our people as possible. We need a targeted, co-ordinated and comprehensive strategy to stimulate tourism and safely generate movement across the whole of our Thirty-two Counties. We need to work with local tourism promotion agencies across Ireland so they can co-ordinate in order to promote our tourism offering better and more effectively. We need to see posters promoting the Ring of Kerry in Belfast and posters promoting Titanic Belfast in Killarney. At such a crucial time, the message in our marketing cannot be confused and we cannot run in competition with one another. This is really vital given the economic reality out there. I accept that there will always be a degree of competition, which is fair enough. We have already heard some colleagues getting their speak in for their own areas this morning. I am sure we will hear much more of that. We need to work to show leadership to ensure those charged with promoting our fantastic tourism assets and tourism offering understand they cannot be too aggressively in competition with one another.They need to harmonise their plans to maximise economic outcomes for the sectors and for communities. If we do that, it will naturally make the case for viable, sustainable, better connected and more modern transportation links across our country. There is a compelling case for that, not least within the context of tourism. For all of the reasons that have been outlined by other Members, sometimes we put an understandable focus on our international marketing strategies, and that is fair enough - I am for that because it is so important - but if this crisis has shown us one thing, it is that we cannot take our eye off the ball in stimulating tourism indigenously and showcasing to our own people the offer we have here. We will have other opportunities to talk about international travel and what is happening at our airports, and I do not intend to go down that road in this contribution, but for the foreseeable future we are asking people not to travel internationally. There is a duty upon us, therefore, to stimulate that movement to improve our tourism offer and infrastructure throughout the island. I believe, and I know many, if not all, colleagues agree with me, that Ireland works best when we work together. There is nowhere that is shown greater than in the way we market and promote ourselves internationally. We market ourselves to the rest of the world as one positive, brilliant tourist destination, and that is how we have to market ourselves going forward.

The North-South Ministerial Council meets this Friday. I do not know if the Minister will be in attendance. I hope she will be, but if not, there will be sectoral and other opportunities for her to meet with her counterpart in the North. I ask that she would take that on as a matter of urgency so that we can begin to implement some of that much-needed co-ordination and promotion, not just at that bigger macro level but down into our local tourism promotion agencies, because I believe that is vital.

One thing we could do, and I offer this as a positive suggestion when the Minister undertakes those conversations, is to look at issues such as the way our international market transfers down to a more localised level. It defies all logic and common sense, economic and otherwise, that the Wild Atlantic Way stops at Derry and does not continue across our stunning north coastline. It is crazy, and I am sure colleagues from Louth will agree, that Ireland's Ancient East stops at Louth and does not go further into Gullion, the playing fields of Cú Chulainn, and does not showcase the fantastic new discoveries at Navan Fort, Emain Macha. I refer to the way we promote St. Patrick's Trail and St. Patrick internationally and how we use St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to market Ireland internationally. How many people across this State know about St. Patrick's Trail or that St. Patrick's burial place is in County Down? How many know the Columbanus coast from where Columbanus monks travelled throughout Europe to re-educate the people and take them out of the Dark Ages? They left from our shores. I refer to the Giant's Causeway and the story of Fionn Mac Cumhaill. Those are our stories and it would make a great deal of common sense, as well as economic sense and logic, if we were able to link those up for all of the tourism and economic reasons but for the practical reasons also.

Mar fhocal scoir sula chríochnaím, cuirfidh mé ceist ar an Aire fá chúrsaí Gaeltachta. Would the Minister consider or does she have any plans to promote a dedicated marketing strategy for our Gaeltacht areas? The Gaeltacht is a unique tourism offer, whether that is the language or the stunning views and locations they offer. She will be aware that Údarás na Gaeltachta recently did a rebranding for Gaeltacht areas. Given the historic neglect of those communities, it would be a wonderful message for the Minister to send out in her new role that she will work to develop a dedicated tourism strategy that promotes our Gaeltacht communities as tourist destinations, particularly given the loss of the summer colleges this year. I am aware that mechanisms have been put in place to support mná tí and the colleges, and that is very welcome, but it would be an added benefit to those communities already suffering if we were to encourage people, for the many reasons that exist, to visit those communities and help support them through this crisis.I believe in tourism as an economic driver. We have a fantastic tourism offering right across Ireland and I want to collaborate positively with the Minister, her officials and other colleagues in this House and elsewhere to get it right.