Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I compliment her on the work she has done in her Department. It is probably the busiest Government Department, but I compliment her on the way her Department has reacted and provided supports for the industry. I am chairman of County Longford tourism committee and have been since I went into local government ten years ago. I compliment the Hidden Heartlands team within Fáilte Ireland. I was involved in pushing for a dedicated brand for the midlands. The local Hidden Heartlands team, including Paddy Matthews and Grainne Cornally, work with us in Longford and do an excellent job promoting our region.

The Minister mentioned in her statement the difficulty finding staff. We will discuss that at Oireachtas joint committee level tomorrow, when I think we will have Paul Kelly from Fáilte Ireland and other representatives before us. We have spoken to Center Parcs, which is the largest product of its kind in the country and is trading very successfully in my county. It is attracting staff; the problem now is getting accommodation for those people. There are people willing to come from abroad to work in the industry but they cannot get accommodation. That has proven to be a difficult issue for them.

Fáilte Ireland recently undertook a survey on the industry that showed that the proportion of consumers taking short trips during 2021 was 54%, slightly below the 2019 mark of 57%. Some 49% intended to travel within Ireland for a short break and 18% intended to travel for a long break. That is strong for the market, but there is an issue with passports, which every one of us will have seen in our offices. The reality is that there has been a huge surge in the number of people looking to travel abroad. That will have a significant impact on our industry at home and particularly on families. That is what I have noticed. A great many of the people looking for passports are young families looking to travel abroad. The Minister mentioned in her statement the domestic campaign. I have not seen that campaign in recent weeks as strongly as it was seen during the summer. We have to get that campaign up and running now to perhaps get people to change their habits and their thinking as to what trip they are planning and, it is to be hoped, to get them to stay in Ireland. I looked up the CSO figures for inbound travel into Ireland in February 2022. The total number of passengers was 787,000. Broken down, there were 408,000 continental passengers, 319,000 from the UK, 38,000 from the USA and 28,000 long-haul. That is 35% down on the figure for February 2020. If that follows through the year, we will be looking at roughly a 35% reduction in the inbound numbers of people coming into the country. That is why it is important we advocate that Irish people holiday at home as strongly as we did during Covid. I have not seen that campaign as actively as we saw it last year. That needs to be started straight away to get people to make different decisions and get them not to travel abroad but rather make them stay in Ireland and support the industry.

I am in favour of retaining the 9% VAT rate, which the Tánaiste spoke about recently. In light of the predicted figures for the year ahead, it is important we set out a clear statement to the industry that we will support it and support that 9% rate for at least another 12 months.

I am a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. We have met with various people from the industry. There is an issue in that Fáilte Ireland has on occasion said it represents not hospitality but tourism. We need to send out a strong statement that Fáilte Ireland represents the tourism and hospitality sector. There are positions on the board of Fáilte Ireland that are not filled at present. Will the Minister make sure that people are appointed to them? Applications to those positions are open, but I ask the Minister to ensure that one of those positions be filled by someone from the hospitality sector and the pubs and restaurants and that all areas of tourism and hospitality are represented on the board of Fáilte Ireland.

Once again, I thank the Minister for the work her Department has done in supporting tourism. I look forward to hearing her comments on the 9% VAT rate and having a hospitality sector representative on the board of Fáilte Ireland.