Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to see the Minister, and I congratulate her. I had the pleasure of working with her on the education committee in the last Dáil and she was a genuinely progressive and radical voice. I hope she will be a radical Minister. The good news is that I am going to give her three opportunities to be radical over the next five minutes.

The first opportunity is in respect of the Shannon Group, which has been mentioned already. It is an absolute disgrace that the Shannon Group has decided to shut down King John's Castle and Bunratty Castle from the end of August. It has caused absolute fury. The fact that it has also refused to open Craggaunowen and Knappogue Castle is equally appalling. The Minister has established a stay and spend initiative and my colleague, Senator Ó Donnghaile, rightly criticised aspects of that initiative. How will that stay and spend initiative work in a city and counties where key sites have been closed down? It makes no sense. This is not just about the 350 people employed by Shannon Heritage, but the thousands of other jobs that depend on these sites being open. This is the equivalent of taking Limerick off the tourism pitch at half time. We will not stand for it. In fact, the Shannon Group has achieved something truly unique - it has managed to unify every political party across the mid-west on this issue. We cannot all be wrong.

The Minister has the power to intervene and to insist on ring-fenced funding to keep King John's Castle and Bunratty Castle open and to open the other sites. I ask her to give a firm commitment today that she will do that. The people of Limerick and Clare will not settle for anything less. I also ask her to prepare the ground to move those sites to the Office of Public Works. It is a long time since we lost faith and confidence in the Shannon Group management. This is an opportunity for the Minister to be radical. The next opportunity is Moore Street. I will again ask the Minister a direct question: what will she do to save and develop Moore Street as a national monument and cultural quarter? The previous Government abandoned it. That was a disgrace. I encourage all Members to go to Moore Street and see the state in which it has been left. A national battleground in 1916, it has been abandoned by both conservative parties. I have faith in the Minister that she will address the issue. Will she meet stakeholder groups and work with us to repair the long-standing wrongs in this regard?

I will address a matter that I suspect others will not during this debate. It is all very well talking about how quickly we can get back to normal, but there is a dark underbelly to our tourism industry of poor pay and conditions. The Minister does not have to take my word for it - I will refer her to the word of Dr. Deirdre Curran, an NUI Galway lecturer who has done extensive research in this area as recently as the end of last year. I will cite some statistics. Of workers surveyed, 64% have suffered psychological abuse and 76% have suffered verbal abuse. We are discussing what is a largely female workforce. Some 52% of workers receive no work breaks, 16% receive no regular wage slips and 43% receive no written statements of terms and conditions. This is the reality of the tourism industry that we do not hear about. It needs to be addressed.

One way the Minister could help would be by supporting Sinn Féin's tips Bill, which is alive and well and will be returning to the Dáil. The Minister was good enough to support it in the previous Dáil. It is a simple Bill to guarantee that people who work for their tips can get them. Unbelievably, Fine Gael opposed it and used a cynical money message when it knew it did not have the votes to stop the Bill from becoming law. I ask that the Minister be radical and work with us on defending front-line workers in our tourism industry.

The last point I wish to make does not relate entirely to the Minister's role, but there is a significant imbalance between east and west. Part of that imbalance operates through our airports. That we have airports under the control of the DAA on the one hand and, on the other, Shannon is a failed independent airport - there is also Ireland West Airport Knock- makes no sense. That is why nine out of ten flights leave from the east coast. If we are to be serious about regional balance, we need the Government to address this issue. I urge the Minister to do what the workers at Shannon Airport have urged her to do and what Sinn Féin has always said should be done. We are the only party on record as opposing this failed model of independence in Shannon. One group needs to manage all of Ireland's airports in order that we can implement proper regional balance and ensure that, when flights are granted in Dublin, it is insisted upon that the airlines put some of them across to the west.

I wish the Minister well. I cannot emphasise enough that, if there is no action on the Shannon Group situation, there will be fury. Please start as a radical Minister and intervene. Save our heritage sites and our jobs.