Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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236. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the additional immediate steps Tourism Ireland will take to deal with the 30% reduction in tourist numbers arriving into Ireland during February 2025 compared with February 2024. [16499/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The 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.

The specific matter raised by the Deputy is an operational matter for Tourism Ireland. Accordingly, I have referred this question to that agency for direct response to the Deputy. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.

However, more generally in relation to the recent CSO figures, it is important to remember that the overseas figures published so far for 2025 cover January and February and these two months usually amount to only 10-15% of total overseas visitor spend for the year.

Earlier this week my Department met with the CSO and the tourism agencies to discuss the overseas visitor figures. I understand a meeting with tourism industry representatives, the tourism agencies and the CSO will also take place later this week to consider any other sources of data that could assist in getting a complete picture of the recent overseas tourism performance. This will assist the tourism agencies to put in place targeted activity for the rest of the year to ensure we achieve our longer-term growth targets.