Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for their comments and kind words on the launch of the pilot basic income scheme for the arts today. I will address as many matters as possible in the time given to me. If I do not reach a specific question, my officials will follow up with the relevant Senators.

Senators Garvey and Conway asked about the plan for the Cliffs of Moher and I will speak with Fáilte Ireland about that before following up with the Senators. Senator Garvey asked about ferries access and I will liaise with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on the matter because it comes under his remit. The Senator also mentioned the sustainable tourism working group and one of the matters being progressed with that is evidence-based targets.

Senator Keogan spoke about visas and Senator Byrne may have touched on the issue as well. That comes under the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment but it is relevant to my sector and I will continue to liaise with the Tánaiste on the matter. Senator Keogan also spoke about business and tourism and I fully support Fáilte Ireland's efforts in that area. I am attending a conference on it this Friday to lend my support to such efforts in a visible way.

Senator Keogan also mentioned Dublin Airport and I know the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, has been holding daily briefings with the chief executive officer of the airport and other senior DAA staff. It has implemented a number of measures recently and informed the Minister of State that these have improved the immediate position significantly. It appears that queue times at the weekend, for example, were substantially shorter than the previous weekend, with 95% of passengers through terminal 2 on Sunday having to queue for less than 35 minutes and 100% queued for less than 45 minutes. At terminal 1, 87% queued for less than 35 minutes and 92% queued for less than 45 minutes. The Minister of State will, of course, continue to monitor the position.

Senators Conway, Keogan, Byrne, Cassells, Carrigy and Murphy spoke about skills shortages. On the question of staffing, my Department and Fáilte Ireland continue to collaborate with the industry and other Departments to ensure there is a co-ordinated approach to addressing the labour and skills shortages. The additional fund I have obtained for tourism in the 2022 budget will allow for targeted investment in human capital, skills development and education to help address particular employment challenges faced by tourism. It is about tracking talent, assisting skills development and retaining staff.

Fáilte Ireland has an extensive plan in place to support the tourism industry and address both its immediate and longer term recruitment challenges to ensure businesses can recover. I will continue to support the industry alongside the Fáilte Ireland agency to address that immediate crisis in skills supply. There are included initiatives, such as a marketing campaign to drive up awareness of jobs in the sector, a range of supports to build the industry's recruitment capabilities and the new transition year work placement programme to provide tourism and hospitality businesses with a direct link to students looking for work experience. There is also a programme to support businesses in accessing people on the live register via the Government's new Pathways to Work strategy. Businesses will also be linked with local third level students and in co-operation with the industry, there will be an effort to link with industry to identify the international markets with the best potential for pools of talent, as well as the most effective labour access points.

Senator Keogan mentioned sustainable tourism. Under the arts section of the Department, we are working on the arts and festival piece. It was mentioned in the recommendations of the arts and culture recovery task force. There is a real desire in the arts sector to "green" the festivals. On the tourism aspect, we have measures that we hope will shine a light on areas and destinations at home that are striving to be best in class in terms of sustainability and provide better access to information and tools. The tourism industry needs tools to help visitors to practise responsible tourism and I see real potential in how we reshape and reimagine tourism post-Covid. We see how the domestic market will thrive and there is a yearning for the outdoors. Tourism Ireland had done great work on this and we need tourists to leave the cities and go into the hidden heartlands to use our blueways, cycleways and walkways. The potential is massive, particularly when we take in our food industry. Everything is there for the taking when it comes to sustainable tourism and we will work on that in our new plan. As I said, our officials have already commenced development of the new national tourism policy that will mainstream such sustainability.

I absolutely share Senator Warfield's enthusiasm for and interest in breathing new life into the night-time economy. I see tourism and cultural benefits in doing that and in all the Senator suggests, including the opening of spaces for arts and culture. As he knows, we are doing substantial work on the night-time economy area and I have a great working relationship with the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, who is very supportive of that. I will share with her the specific suggestions the Senator made today about the licensing system because it is under her remit.

I was delighted to support the outdoor dining measures that were mentioned by Senator Wall, along with the tourism projects he mentioned in Kildare. To respond to Senator Ward, I will speak with Fáilte Ireland as I know it has plans to promote the wider Dublin region. There is much to offer in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area, although I noticed he only mentioned what is in his own part of the locality. He is not here but I will mention the facilities in my part of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, from Glencullen, Dundrum and Stepaside to Goatstown, Stillorgan and Churchtown. The list may be endless. We have promotions and sights to see there as well. I will mention his comments to Fáilte Ireland and speak with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, about a cycleway. I will also speak to the Minister about Senator Lombard's query about Dublin Port.

Senator Lombard mentioned Airbnb in reference to Housing for All. Overall responsibility for delivery of that plan rests with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage but we have a lead role in the implementation of Action 20.4, relating to the new regulatory controls requiring short-term and holiday lets to register with Fáilte Ireland. I have engaged with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on the matter and Fáilte Ireland has had significant engagement with the Residential Tenancies Board in the final quarter of 2021. My officials meet on an ongoing basis with officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, as well as Fáilte Ireland.

Funding was allocated in the 2022 budget to Fáilte Ireland, which is being tasked with the design and implementation of the short-term lettings registration system and the agency is currently recruiting staff to work on the project with the project lead in place. My officials are also working on scoping the legislative provisions that will be required to underpin the system with a view to these provisions being enacted this year.

Senators Carrigy, Conway, Murphy and O'Loughlin raised the question of VAT. I know the sector is concerned about the matter and is seeking an extension of the reduced VAT rate. I have pressed for an extension of the reduction of the VAT rate beyond August 2022 but the very strong support package I secured in the 2022 budget is already assisting the tourism sector to get firmly back on its feet in the summer. Taxation is ultimately a matter for the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and he has commented that the extension provides support for those eight months to the end of the 2022 summer season, allowing a longer period of recovery for tourism. Should the economic position on tourism demand alter, he has said the VAT rate applicable to tourism will be reviewed as part of the budgetary cycle.

I was glad to hear Senator O'Loughlin's report of the positive outlook for key Kildare tourism destinations, especially with the Great Britain market, which is one of our most important tourism markets.I see the huge potential of the bank holiday of St. Brigid from a spiritual and a feminist point of view. Our officials are working on how best to celebrate that bank holiday and drive the tourism market as well.

Senators Conway and Carrigy raised the issue of Fáilte Ireland board appointments. There are currently four vacancies on the board of Fáilte Ireland. The previous chairperson resigned on 15 August, with three further board resignations in September 2020, November 2020 and November 2021, respectively. Mr. Paul Carty, a previous ordinary board member, was appointed chairperson in February 2022, which has resulted in a further ordinary board member vacancy. The terms of office for four further ordinary board members were due to expire on 27 May 2022 but all four have been reappointed for a second term of two years' duration after 27 May. The process for filling the four existing vacancies has now commenced. It could not proceed until the chairperson vacancy was filled and the four reappointments were confirmed. It is open to anybody from any sector to apply for appointment to the board.

Senators Byrne, Murphy and Carrigy raised the issue of domestic marketing. Fáilte Ireland is doubling its domestic marketing target in 2022 to drive domestic demand for short breaks all year around. It will also delivery four new regional tourism strategies, setting out a ten-year vision and a five-year action plan for each vision. It aims to ensure that tourism businesses are visible, searchable and most importantly bookable through its digital that delivers programme. It remains focused on helping businesses to promote Ireland as an international destination but it is domestic tourism that is the focus. Fáilte Ireland estimates that domestic tourism will be back to 2019 levels this summer.

Overall, I think we can agree that tourism has turned a corner, thankfully. When I was at the trade event, Meitheal, in Killarney last week, the interest arising from that pent-up demand was phenomenal. We can expect a very good summer and bookings for next year. I was very proud of the various regions that were on display at Meitheal. Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland did a stellar job, as they always do. I believe that with the right support and direction, we can begin to reshape and regrow our tourism sector. However, we have to be careful not to grow just for the sake of growing. We have seen in the recent past that such growth can be unsustainable. We must grow in a way that means that future generations will also benefit from Ireland as a tourist destination, whether as visitors or as part of the industry.