Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. I will keep my comments brief. Senator Casey has said it far more passionately than I could. I have been the chairman of the County Longford Tourism Committee for many years in a voluntary capacity. We are trying to build an industry from a very low ebb in order to bring people into our county. Now Covid-19 has brought us back to zero. I cannot understand why we are introducing this threshold when we should be trying to bring people into our country in any way we can. As has been said before, we have fought to hold onto our corporation tax rate as a way of bringing business and jobs into our country.

The Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht was addressed by Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland yesterday. I asked both of those organisations for their views on this threshold. They were not in favour of it. I ask the Minister of State to consider an alternative. This is the wrong time to do this. It would have a huge effect on our efforts to restore tourist numbers to the levels reached prior to Covid-19. I compliment Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland for their work. This is a massive industry, employing more than 200,000 people. We want to get those people back to work. As other Senators have said, this will hit small shops in smaller counties like mine, which are struggling to attract tourists. It will not affect big shops in bigger cities. It will be felt by businesses off the main roads; small craft shops, restaurants etc. I ask the Minister of State to reconsider this. It is not the right way to rebuild our tourism trade.