Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. In her introduction, she mentioned the just transition fund. I was at the launch in Corlea, a very apt location for the launch of that fund. I see a figure of €68 million ring-fenced and committed for tourism projects. I sincerely hope that the Longford and Offaly, the two counties most affected by just transition, would be prioritised for funding for those projects. I have a meeting tomorrow morning in Abbeyshrule with the tourism committee and providers to look at possibilities for projects that we could put forward to leverage money from that fund.

Senator Boyhan mentioned Center Parcs. It has been a massively successful model, with nearly full capacity all year round, providing 1,000 jobs in the midland economy, with tens of companies supplying into it from the region. I have to compliment Center Parcs. When we met it in Luton six, seven or eight years ago, prior to the project being developed, it gave a commitment that it would source as much from the local economy as it could, and it has done so. A significant number of business are supplying into it. The model is working. That is why it has got planning permission for around 180 lodges to bring it up to, when completed, accommodation for roughly 3,500 people at a minimum every week. We do not want to see it replicated anywhere else in the country. We want people to continue to keep coming to Longford, that is, those 3,500 people per week. Then it is up to us as a local authority and as a tourism committee to try to get people to see what we have to offer in Longford and the greater midlands. That is something we have particularly identified as a priority in our strategy, that is, to build on the assets that we have.

The county came from quite a low base a number of years ago. We have our walkways, cycleways, lakes, rivers and canals, and we are working on and building on that. Our numbers are increasing, and the advent of the Hidden Heartlands brand name has been significant for us, in that we actually had a brand we could identify. It has proven to be so successful and strong that other counties looked to get into that brand name. I am very positive going forward.

On accommodation, we have to come back to that point and the figures for Longford. We have a very low Fáilte Ireland accommodation base. At the moment, more than 70% of that is taken up and not available. A 14-bed guesthouse, PV's, opened in Longford town last week. It is now open to the market. However, it is very difficult for us, as a committee, which is trying to promote Longford, to bring in tour groups and to talk to coach operators, if there is nowhere to stay.It is a major issue. The Minister said there was a 73% recovery in 2022 but, internationally, I think we face problems. What I hear from people in the coach-operating business is that a lot of the international market is starting to look at the likes of Scotland for those tours because we are not able to provide the accommodation. Some of the accommodation comes at a significantly increased cost. There is a negative knock-on effect on the ancillary businesses in all those areas. We met Paul Kelly, whom Senator Cassells mentioned, only a couple of weeks ago. These businesses are expected to lose revenue of €1.1 billion due to the lack of accommodation and the tourism spend in those areas that will not happen. I firmly believe, therefore, that we need to look at a Covid-type scheme that we would put in place to support those businesses. We need to support them because they will struggle over the next 12 months or, to be honest, 24 months. I fear we will lose that business for the coming years because we are not able to accommodate those tour operators. We also met with the coach tour operators. They are starting to lose tours.

Another issue arising is VAT. The operators are not able to compete with some of the Northern Ireland bus companies in that what tours are coming are being undercut on price by bus companies from Northern Ireland because the operators here are not able to claim back VAT. That needs to be looked at to allow at least the bus industry to be competitive on those tours that are here. We have heard anecdotally that another issue related to VRT is the lack of vehicles available for the rental market and that what is available is at a significantly high price.

We have thrashed this out at committee level. It has been probably the number one topic in our committee over the past 24 months. We have met the stakeholders throughout. I have to hand it to the Minister; she has supported the industry and pushed on its behalf within Government to get the supports in place.

The 9% VAT rate was significant for the industry. We need to look at extending it again. I know that it will be said that we have price gouging among certain hotels, particularly here in the capital. I did not look this up but I assume that this weekend hotel accommodation is at a high premium, particularly with the Heineken Cup final being on and large numbers coming in from La Rochelle. I will be at that match but I will use Iarnród Éireann to get up and down to Dublin. When you go to other parts of the country you can get great value, so we cannot label everyone together. I have just booked something for June, when my kids will finish up in school. We got a short break in the Diamond Coast Hotel, Enniscrone, a beautiful hotel, for under €600 for three nights, bed and breakfast, so there is value throughout the country when you look around. We need to look at some sort of support measure for those ancillary businesses that will suffer and lose revenue. As Paul Kelly said, those businesses are expected to lose €1.1 billion in revenue in the year ahead.

I look forward to further engagement over the coming months. I have very high confidence that the Government will support businesses in the tourism sector.