Written answers

Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Covid-19 Pandemic Supports

Photo of Michael Healy-RaeMichael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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244. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the further action that will be taken to support the domestic economy and to protect the long-term viability of 260,000 tourism jobs in the hospitality and tourism sector (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5753/21]

Photo of Catherine MartinCatherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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As the Deputy is aware, a Tourism Recovery Taskforce was appointed last year to prepare a Tourism Recovery Plan with recommendations on how best the Irish Tourism sector can adapt and recover in a changed tourism environment as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The Taskforce presented its Tourism Recovery Plan 2020-2023 to me on 30th September last. The Plan produced by the Taskforce was a very useful and important consideration for myself and my colleagues in Government in our deliberations for Budget 2021 and this continues to be the case as we evaluate the evolving situation.

One of the recommendations in the Recovery Plan was to establish an independently chaired Recovery Oversight Group, to oversee the implementation of the recommendations in the Taskforce report and monitor the sector’s recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. I appointed the Recovery Oversight Group in December 2020 and the Group will keep me apprised of progress on the implementation of the Recovery Plan and the recovery of the sector.

The Recovery Plan makes a number of recommendations with the priority recommendations relating to the survival of the sector. Good progress has been made in introducing the following tourism-specific measures: 

- There was a record level of funding for Tourism overall, an increase of €59 million over 2020 allocation, to just under €221 million.

- Based on this allocation, a €55 million business continuity scheme was launched on 1st February by Fáilte Ireland to help strategic tourism business survive the pandemic and drive recovery. The Scheme will contribute to the fixed costs of identified tourism businesses that are not eligible for CRSS to support their survival.  It will provide an equitable level of payment to the CRSS for qualifying businesses and the first phase which was launched on 1st February will cover businesses such as tourism attractions, activity providers, and caravan and camping sites.

- The VAT rate for the Sector was reduced to 9% to help improve competitiveness and viability of businesses.

- Two separate funds of €10million each were introduced for Coach Tourism Operators and Ireland Based Inbound Agents Business Continuity Scheme in the last quarter of 2020. 

- Funding of €5 million has also been provided for upskilling training and to improve digital presence.

- A €26m adaptation fund for the tourism sector to adapt their premises to meet COVID-19 safety requirements. 

In addition, the Government has introduced a number of horizontal measures that have been of assistance to the tourism sector including the Employee Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS), tax warehousing, and the Commercial Rates waiver, which was recently extended to the end of Q1 2021.  In regard to the CRSS, as at 28 January 2021, Revenue Commissioners’ data shows that €244m was paid out under CRSS, of which approximately 64% (€155m) . 

The measures introduced have been critical in assisting tourism businesses to survive the hugely challenging situation brought about by the pandemic. Unfortunately, the evolution of the pandemic in Ireland and elsewhere has meant that our tourism sector has remained in survival mode. Many of the remaining recommendations of the Recovery Plan are aimed at the stabilisation and recovery phase. I, along with my colleagues in Government, will keep these under review as we emerge from the survival phase and move towards recovery and look forward to the input of the Recovery Oversight Group to inform my deliberations in this regard. In addition, I will continue to work closely with my colleagues in Government to ensure that appropriate horizontal business supports are maintained in order to help tourism businesses come through this very challenging period.

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