Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. This short and technical Bill will provide the statutory basis to allow the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to increase the aggregate level of funding that will be made available to Fáilte Ireland. As has been said, the current ceiling is €300 million and the Bill will see it increase to €500 million. Sinn Féin will support the Bill.

I have said in the past that our heritage projects and communities that save and protect our heritage should never have to justify their heritage on the basis of visitor numbers. When Fine Gael was alone in government for many years, the Heritage Council lingered without its funding being restored during the period of austerity. A very Fine Gael-like approach to heritage was that communities would have to justify their heritage projects. This was because Fáilte Ireland was the only State agency funding heritage on the basis of visitor numbers and tourism offering. That is problematic because heritage is extremely important to our country and to communities that protect and save it.

Tourism is Ireland's biggest indigenous industry. Hundreds of thousands of people are employed in tourism. It is especially important along the west coast and in the midlands. Fáilte Ireland is integral to that. It has played a central role in the development of tourism and its work should be commended. It would not be possible, however, to speak about tourism without referencing the pandemic and the resultant restrictions. The years 2020, 2021 and 2022 were among the most difficult ones for the industry and as we know, the industry was the first to close and the last to reopen.Despite Government funding for wages and overheads, it was a very difficult time for the industry. We emerged from the crisis and went straight into the cost-of-living and energy crises. Some parts of the sector, especially restaurants, face a very difficult winter. Some will have warehouse debt to deal with, along with energy bills and difficulties with recruitment. This is before they contend with staff shortages due to the large number of workers who left the sector during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We all know that hotels, especially those in our cities, engaged in significant price gouging during the summer months this year. However, it is important to recognise that this is a very wide-ranging industry and that different sections will have different experiences. The actions of some hoteliers should not be allowed to tarnish the entire industry. We must not punish one section of the industry for the actions of another. Despite various Ministers having commented on the VAT rate for the industry, it is, in Sinn Féin's view, possible under European law to apply different tax rates to different sections of the tourism and hospitality sector. Hotels could have one tax rate and other tourist attractions or restaurants could have another. We need to consider this seriously. I ask the Minister to investigate that further. We cannot continue to allow price gouging to go unchecked. A failure to act would only add to the reputational damage that has affected Irish tourism recently and allow the actions of a small minority to have an impact on the industry as a whole. We need to act now before businesses' livelihoods and reputations are damaged beyond repair.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the pay and conditions of workers in the industry. I, like others, have mentioned this at meetings of the joint committee. We have written a report on this matter that is due to be published soon. We held hearings that exposed some outrageous behaviour by certain parts of the sector, with hospitality workers being treated terribly, abused, overworked and underpaid. There was much talk last year about staffing crises in the sector. It should come as no surprise that retention is such a struggle in the industry when one sees how poor conditions are in some places. I urge the Minister to get involved. It is not right that industry lobby groups, but not workers, would be represented. I hope the Minister will bat for ordinary workers in the industry.

I hope the Minister will consider taking responsibility for this in her own Department and consider the report that our committee has compiled. Some very serious issues were raised in the report. Unless action is taken, the situation will remain the same and the industry will suffer from constant staff recruitment and retention problems. Sinn Féin will support the Bill; however, I ask the Minister to consider the pay and conditions of those who work in the industry. I probably do not need to tell her that heritage should not have to be justified on the basis of visitor numbers and the tourism offering; it is important in its own right. The Heritage Council has an important role in that regard.