Conor Murphy (Sinn Fein)

I welcome this morning's announcement that the tourism branding of Ireland's Hidden Heartlands is being extended north of the Border into County Fermanagh. That is good for tourism providers in Fermanagh. For people who may not have visited it, Fermanagh is a scenically very beautiful county, with many tourism offerings. The Minister for the Economy north of the Border, Caoimhe Archibald MLA, has added a £300,000 marketing boost to Fermanagh to welcome the initiative. This particular expansion of Fáilte Ireland's brand into the North makes a lot of sense in terms of marketing and the similarity of the offer that is found in Fermanagh to that on offer in the rest of the area that is covered by the Hidden Heartlands.

I was working on this project in my previous role as Minister for the Economy in the North with the then Minister for tourism, Deputy Catherine Martin. That function has since been brought into the Department of enterprise, under the Minister, Deputy Burke, which is a good move. We brought together the three tourism agencies on the island, namely, Tourism Ireland, which markets the island internationally, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism NI, to discuss the very successful branding under Fáilte Ireland's banner. We were told that Ireland's Ancient East is under review to assess its effectiveness. That was a year or 18 months ago. It is time we heard where that review is. Of course, the Wild Atlantic Way has been a very successful tourism exercise, and one which I know a lot of the tourism providers on the north coast are very keen to be linked into in a more formal way.

There is more work to be done. This initial step is very welcome. As part of the brief when I was a minister, I visited New York, Chicago and Toronto to talk to tour operators. With the simplicity of our message, and certainty of our branding for an island as small as this one, it makes enormous sense that we take successful brands and apply them to as much of the island as makes branding sense. That makes the job of Tourism Ireland, which does a remarkable job internationally in promoting the whole island, much easier. I have had the pleasure of hosting events internationally where we talk to tour operators. I would like to see a debate in the Chamber in relation to tourism on the island generally, particularly tourism branding, to discuss how we can make it more successful.

At the enterprise committee, we recently had discussions with tourism providers about how we help them in the job they are doing. We can make the job done by small and large providers right across the island easier. We recognise the economic benefits they bring to the entirety of the island. I would welcome a debate on that topic.