Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief because time has been limited. I would like to raise two things. One is the cruise liner industry and where we are going with it. In Cork, it has a huge impact on our tourism trade. It is a real driver for our economy. However, we need to make sure that we get the boats down to Cork. We have more than 100 boats traditionally. Our liners sort of came to Cobh on a traditional basis. There seems to be an issue in Dublin Port that it is limiting the number of cruise liners coming in. If they cannot come to the capital city, the knock-on effect is they will not come to the second city. Will the Minister comment on where she believes the future of the cruise liner industry is going and what we can do to promote it, not alone in Cork Harbour, but places such as Baltimore and Bantry, which have had significant trade in the past few years?

The second issue I seek the Minister’s comment on, if she possibly could, is Airbnb. Where does she believe Airbnb fits into the market? I am very close to Kinsale, which is literally having anything up to 80 or 90 Airbnb properties on the market everyday, but no rental market because it has been sucked up by Airbnb. When will the promised regulations be put in place? I believe that Fáilte Ireland is involved, but I might be wrong and the Minister might correct me and give me her view on where Airbnb fits into the whole ethos of the tourism market.