Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 658: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the jobs created by initiatives funded by him under the jobs initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27334/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In May 2011, I announced a €75 million boost for Transport related projects under the Governments jobs Initiative. This included €60 million to maintain and repair regional and local roads across Ireland damaged in the last two severe winters and €15 million for traffic management & improvements to rail stations, pedestrian crossings, footpaths, bus networks and sustainable transport projects. In addition since May's announcement, I have provided an additional €3.9 million for the Jobs Initiative Smarter Travel package from savings identified on other measures within my Department.

It is estimated that this level of funding would support employment for at least 1,000 people.

The Jobs Initiative also introduced a 9% VAT rate (from July 1st ) in support of the Tourism sector, on a range of services including hotels and restaurants. In addition the Government halved employers' PRSI for those on modest wages. These measures are of considerable benefit to tourism businesses, lowering their cost base, and allowing them to offer a more competitive product. The industry continues to play its part in passing on these cost reductions and boost both domestic and visitor business.

At this stage it is too early to assess the impact of these measures on employment in the sector. The most recent figures from the CSO relate to Quarter 2 of 2011 and so do not measure the impact of the Jobs Initiative. It will be later this year/early next year before we can properly form a view on the effect of these measures on employment.

The Jobs Initiative also included a number of other Tourism initiatives. A three-pronged plan to promote tourism by increasing access capacity included abolishing the travel tax, significant rebates of passenger charges for extra passengers brought in by airlines, and more targeted co-operative marketing of new routes from key source tourism markets by Tourism Ireland, DAA and the airlines to encourage more tourists to fly into Ireland. While the abolition of the travel tax has been deferred pending a further review of the situation next spring, the Government is allocating a significant share of the monies raised from the travel tax to fund additional cooperative marketing.