Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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42. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the rationale for excluding Waterford county from the Wild Atlantic Way route; his proposals to include that county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36788/14]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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While my Department provides the capital funding for investment in tourism projects such as the Wild Atlantic Way, it is not directly involved in developing or managing them. The development of the Wild Atlantic Way is a matter for the Board and management of Fáilte Ireland.  

It is important to note that the Wild Atlantic Way was developed specifically for the Western seaboard to address the ongoing decline in international visitors.  It builds on what is distinctive and appealing about the West coast, its rugged coastline and powerful ocean, to give it visibility in a congested international tourism market.

In regard to Waterford, Fáilte Ireland is currently developing a similar unifying tourism proposition for those counties in the east and south.  These areas share a relative strength in the richness of their historic built environment such as Viking Waterford, Medieval Kilkenny and Brú na Boinne.  This is a work in progress and it is intended to form a complementary tourism proposition to the Wild Atlantic Way.

The brand proposition will group the cultural and heritage tourism assets and experiences of Ireland’s East and South via a network of routes, trails and journeys into a new tourism experience that can easily be understood by and will appeal to overseas visitors.

It is intended that the research, brand development and consumer testing will be completed during 2014, and the new proposition will be launched in early 2015.