Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. It is important to acknowledge that the Fine Gael tourism spokesperson met the industry and it is thankful for the significant Covid supports that have been given to it. The Minister of State knows the figures; 230,000 livelihoods depend on the industry and the reality is there is an extremely grim outlook for the sector in the time ahead. You only have to look at the increases in bills with an average of a 300% increase in energy costs. We have a lot of economic uncertainty and we need to look across the water at the economic uncertainty among our nearest neighbours in the UK. We need to look at the tourism figures and the number of tourists who come into Ireland from the UK. The industry gets a significant income from that economic activity. As I said, over 70% of our overall tourism revenue comes from the US, the UK and Europe, with a significant portion of that coming from the UK. If we have economic uncertainty ahead, as the UK does, that will affect the number of UK tourists coming into this country and spending money. The international tourism market is a competitive one so every euro we get in is hard won and it is important that we get tourists to spend that money in Ireland and not in mainland Europe or their own countries. I know there has been a significant amount of talk about the 9% VAT rate. We need to extend it until the end of 2023. We have a tough year ahead for the industry and we need to support it.