Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 18: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the status of the tourism policy review group and the tourism action plan implementation group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5705/07]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The Report of the Tourism Policy Review Group, New Horizons for Irish Tourism: An Agenda for Action, was published in September 2003. I appointed the Tourism Action Plan Implementation Group for a two-year period to oversee implementation of the Action Plan set out in the Report. That Plan contained 76 recommended actions to help Irish tourism meet the ambitious targets set for the sector in the Report, namely, 10 million visitors per annum and €6 billion in foreign revenue by 2012.

The Implementation Group reported to me, in March 2006, that 63 of the 76 recommended actions made in the New Horizons Report, had either been implemented or good progress had been made in relation to them. The Group highlighted the areas where good progress had been made including:

The National Conference Centre,

Increases in air access

Promoting the development of e-commerce within the tourism sector.

It also pointed to a number of areas where progress had been less satisfactory. These included

loss of competitiveness,

the need for innovation and product development,

variations in performance between urban and rural areas,

the visitor experience at Dublin Airport and

VAT deductibility on conference business.

In May 2006 I appointed the Tourism Strategy Implementation Group for a period of two years as a successor group and, in particular, to advise on implementation of the outstanding recommended actions of the New Horizons Report. The Tourism Strategy Implementation Group — which has met on a number of occasions — will be working with the tourism industry and public sector bodies to address a number of key areas, in particular, competitiveness, productivity and skills, sustainability, regional spread and product development. In line with the objective of bringing the tourism industry together with policy makers to identify the key issues which need to be addressed, the Group intends holding a Tourism Forum in April of this year to which representatives of the sector will be invited.