Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I acknowledge the exciting developments in Limerick, particularly the opening of the International Rugby Experience. It is very welcome in the heart of the city, alongside our medieval quarter and the fact that we really are the sporting capital of Ireland when you think of our success in rugby and hurling. Our hurling is a little dodgy at the minute, but we will see. There is our thriving Treaty United as well.

The three bridges, quite unusually, came to prominence during Covid, when people were not really allowed to do much and many people took to walking the three bridges route. It has become a huge tourist attraction now because people can see the city from so many different angles. Limerick has a hell of a lot to offer, and I very much welcome the news that Bunratty Castle is now under the ownership of Clare County Council for the first time. It makes a huge difference in terms of security for the staff and, it is to be hoped, a secure financial future for the really impressive tourist attraction it is. I salute the SIPTU trade union for its three-year campaign to get that done. It campaigned mightily, and it is a big win not only for the union but also our tourist offering across the mid-west.

One of the key things we need to do - I hope the Minister will agree with me - is ensure a better dispersal of tourists across the country. I speak particularly from the point of view of the mid-west and the west. This is where we really need some help from the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, because, as she will know, 90% of flights both leaving and coming into the State do so on the east coast. That is not the way it should operate. We need a strategic direction in respect of that issue. We need a new airport authority with a mandate that will determine that, rather than having Shannon Airport, for example, directly in competition with Dublin, the two should come under the one umbrella. There is, however, a particular direction from the Government to ensure a greater diversity of flights, not just for Shannon but across the west generally. That is the sort of initiative we need to ensure we have more tourists coming to the west, if we are serious about it. If 90% of people are landing in Dublin, the chances are that an awful lot of them will not move west. That is a fundamental difference we would like to see the Government make. It would need the co-operation of the Minister for Transport. I regret to say he has ignored the issue any time I have raised it with him in the past, but it is something we should all be able to agree on in terms of having a strategic view as to how we get greater dispersal of people across the west.

I take the point Senator Carrigy made that we cannot describe all hotels as being the same. There are small hotels and there are large corporates. There is no doubt in my mind but that price gouging has been going on. Anyone who tried to stay for the Bruce Springsteen concerts over the past week or two will know that. There is no question about it.

My concern is about the terms and conditions of workers. The Minister mentioned 250,000 workers in the sector. This is a low-pay sector. It is one in which increasingly young people are happy to work as they work their way through college but they do not see it as a viable career path, and there is a problem there. In fairness, the Government knows the solution because it has made a start in respect of the early years sector. We need an employment regulation order for the sector to put in place a floor of decency as regards terms and conditions that would put proper pay scales in place. The sad reality is that for barmen working in a hotel in Ireland, the chances are there is a set rate of pay and no pay scale to look to. We used to have pay scales for people when we had employment regulation orders in place years ago. We even had pensions for people who worked in the hotel and tourism business. Is it such an unreasonable ask that we put those conditions back into play? Again, we need the Government to help make that happen. I would like to hear whether the Government is prepared to actually engage with both employers and unions to see that employment regulation order come about. It is regrettable but factually true that the blockage at the moment is caused by the employer groups. The Irish Hotels Federation does not want to engage in that process. That is not only mistaken in terms of protecting the long-term future of our tourism offering; it is actually against its own interests. As I said, the sector is struggling to retain staff, and the reason for that is that it is just not attractive as set up at the moment. Rates of pay, frankly, are too low. We know what the solution is but what I have not seen to date is a Government willingness to acknowledge that this is a problem in the first place and that the best route out of it is by working towards an employment regulation order.

Passports need to be mentioned. Members are beginning to get calls about them again. We would expect some calls at this time of year but I again implore the Government to consider opening a passport office in Belfast. It would send a really positive message to our fellow countrymen in the North. It would also ease the pressure on the existing passport services. I note and welcome that there is now a building in London separate from the embassy where people can make appointments and get their passports. If we can have that in London, why on earth can we not have an office in Belfast? It is a sensible thing to do. It would send a powerful signal that we regard our brothers and sisters in the North as having the same rights to access as we do down here. It is the sort of initiative that would gain an awful lot of credit for the Minister so I ask her to look at that.

Overall, there is lots of good. I acknowledge the challenges the Minister mentioned with the pressure of the huge task in respect of refugees. That is a real problem, and I do not think anyone should make politics out of it. I certainly will not do so today, except to acknowledge that it is a challenge. I know the Minister is doing her best to deal with it but I would welcome her responses, particularly as to how we lift the terms and conditions for the people who actually create the value and deliver the service day in, day out, across our island.