Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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51. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to provide an update on her Department’s efforts to support tourism sites in north County Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23910/24]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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My Department's role in relation to tourism lies primarily in the area of national tourism policy and implementation of that policy is a matter for the tourism agencies, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, as well as certain other bodies.

Fáilte Ireland’s Regional Tourism Development Strategy 2023-27 sets out the ambition to develop three distinct areas of Dublin (the city, the coast and the mountains) over the duration of the strategy.

With regard to activity relating specifically to north county Dublin in particular, the Dublin Coastal Trail covers locations (including north Dublin) along the coast which have featured prominently in Fáilte Ireland’s work in recent years. In its 2018 orientation strategy, Failte Ireland identified the Dublin Coastal Trail as an opportunity to spread the economic benefit of tourism into the wider Dublin region by creating and marketing a coastal offering, supported by signage at key points. The Coastal Trail launched in 2022.

Newbridge House was awarded a grant of €107,000 as part of the Surprising Stories funding scheme and the town of Skerries was awarded funding under Fáilte Ireland’s destination town capital scheme. Fáilte Ireland works closely with north Dublin tourism organisations, both at the level of the individual business and that of the wider destination perspective, and also with established groups (or clusters) along the coast. There are also 15 north Dublin businesses included across the 3 intakes in Fáilte's Digital that Delivers Scheme.

Work across the wider Dublin region but relevant to the coast includes an update to the orientation plans. Fingal, the coast and Dublin airport are included in this plan. Fáilte Ireland is also currently working on a food plan for Dublin and Fingal is an important part of this. A number of events take place throughout the year that businesses from across the whole region participate in, including Meitheal, the flagship tourism trade event held two months ago in Killarney, Breakfast Bytes and Destination Dublin, which are networking events, and Dublin Champions, which caters for front of house teams.

Fáilte Ireland intends to commence work on a Destination and Experience Development Plan (DEDP) for the Dublin coast which will build on the work outlined above and set out the shared tourism ambition for the coast into the future. The DEDP is a vehicle for Fáilte Ireland to consolidate all the work already happening across the three local authority areas and to capture proposed tourism development projects into a single plan. To develop this plan, Fáilte Ireland will establish a working group to collaborate with local authorities, public bodies and tourism partners to develop a shared vision for the future, to maximise the sustainable tourism potential for the destination.

The coastal DEDP will set out a number of objectives which will be informed by the Regional Tourism Development Strategy and will involve consultation with key partners, the community and other stakeholders, as well as the identification of international best practice case studies.

Fáilte Ireland intends to tender for work on the Dublin Coastal DEDP in Q3 this year, with a view to launching it in Q2 2025. However, it is important to note that there is already a lot of work happening on the ground in north Dublin and Fáilte Ireland will build on this in the coming years.