Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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47. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for a detailed overview and breakdown of the €70 million announced in Budget 2026 to develop Irish tourism SMEs and attractions, and link overseas investment with new airline routes. [57536/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The recently published Updated National Development Plan provides my Department with an overall funding envelope of €3.68 billion to support our Enterprise Development, Innovation and Commercialisation and Tourism Capital Programmes in the period 2026 to 2030. Budget 2026 confirmed that €680 million of the overall NDP envelope will be available to support these programmes next year.

The increase in our capital funding under the NDP will ensure that we can progress many of the priority investments identified under the Competitiveness and Productivity Action Plan and the Market Diversification Action Plan. In terms of next year, our increased capital ceiling will, inter alia, allow our Tourism Agencies to support businesses to carry out activity in new markets and establish a foothold in new tourism markets for Ireland.

Specifically, the funding being provided to Fáilte Ireland will enable them to contribute towards an enhanced focus on culinary tourism and develop a new food in tourism strategy and pilot a dedicated destination marketing campaign that showcases the range and quality of the food experiences in Ireland.  Fáilte Ireland will also maximise the roll-out of the Commercial Resilience Framework which assists SMEs to identify their most pressing commercial challenges and receive tailored practical support.

In line with the new Action Plan for Market Diversification, the funding being allocated to Tourism Ireland will ensure that they can support new opportunities to support the businesses and communities that depend on overseas tourism.  It will also allow them to deliver a step change growth from European markets with additional investment as envisaged in their recently published Mainland European Appraisal Strategy.

The specific 2026 capital allocations to the Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Island and the other Tourism capital programmes supported under my Department’s Vote will be determined  as part of the Revised Estimates process which will be published later this year.