I am delighted to discuss tourism which is of national importance and significance. One thing we have in common across the country is the need for tourism. One very positive step we had with this Government is that we put tourism under the economic brief. With the Minister, Deputy Burke, in attendance, we have someone with an especially keen watch on tourism because it does show how tourism can impact. It is obviously great when people come to visit the country because, ultimately, what they do is spend money in our economy. They spend money positively. We do it ourselves when we go on holidays around the country. What we do is leave money behind us. As a country and as towns and villages, we have to be careful. We have to ensure that we do not try to take too much money. We cannot kill the golden goose. Something we have to careful about from our own economic perspective is that we keep an eye on prices, such as car rental prices, hotel prices and the lattes and scones potentially costing up to a tenner. They are the things we have to watch. We have to ensure that Ireland remains a place to visit where not only will people get a great experience but it will not cost them a fortune. In fairness, that is something on which we have to keep an eye. As Deputy Byrne outlined earlier, Ireland has a great tradition of tourism coming from the US, considering the number of people who went abroad. That is something we relied upon through different times. Movies like "Ryan's Daughter" sold Ireland to countries like America and since then, Ireland has benefitted economically from it. Tourism might be seen from a national perspective to have fallen down some levels of importance but we do know that for some areas, it is massively significant. One issue I want to talk about is how this Government and, in fairness, the previous Government have over the past number of years reached out in many different ways to America, be it the American college football games or the NFL last year. We will have the Ryder Cup coming here. These events can draw in thousands of new people and thousands of eyeballs on the television. They can have a massive impact. That is hugely important. Another issue I want to highlight is probably one we have not highlighted and sold enough to tourists. This should not always be about sales and money but one thing is the likes of the GAA. Do we push it enough to tourists? Do people know and understand that we have our own indigenous games? While we welcome games and highlight and showcase them, it is also important that we showcase what we have on our doorstep. We have traditions and games of our own. We are brilliant at exporting music and culture and those traditions but, ultimately, we also need to look at it from a sporting place. The GAA potentially has a great role to play. Obviously, it has done its bit with the museum and everything else but from a tourism board and national perspective, it is something we have to push more. As I get down towards more of a parochial level, I look at Kildare North and Kildare in general. I have been lucky enough to have been a mayor of Kildare. I have been fortunate enough to be a councillor there for a number of years. However, one thing I felt was that we probably did not have enough visitors coming through. We have the golf courses and carting. We have the K Club. We have the horseracing. Indeed, we have places like Castletown House, Kilkea Castle and Lullymore in the north west of the county. We have some great locations. These are places that can really bring in more people because they are so close to the airport. Indeed, when we talk about tourism, we should not miss out on internal tourism and the fact that people are going from one side of the country to the other and spending their money. We need to continue to push on this. I know Into Kildare has done a huge amount of work and put a huge amount of effort into marketing the county. I look for more assistance from the Department, if possible, to continue that. I was lucky to be in Castletown House on Monday and got shown around for the umpteenth time. The OPW has been able to buy the land. We now have access restored. This is a cultural pearl of north Kildare that we should continue to push as well. As I said, there are lots of opportunities and possibilities but in the good hands of the Minister, Deputy Burke, there is no reason why tourism will not continue to thrive in the country.

Sentiment score: 0.27