I want to make a pitch for my own constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. We cannot be complacent about our success or rest on our laurels. We have to continue to be innovative and to develop our tourism product. In this regard, we need to look at the strengths of each county and not just make every county, city and village the same. We must look at what they have to offer and have strategic investment in what each county is doing or wants to do. It is not driven from the top; it is driven by the community and those who are involved in the tourism industry. There should be a Norman museum and study centre in Kilkenny. It is the heart of our Norman history. It can attract tourists right across Europe who are engaging in Norman history and education. The Ministers for tourism and higher education should develop that type of offering with the South East Technological University, which will attract real money and real tourism. We need to build on the strengths that we have in the county, for example, in Graiguenamanagh, and highlight the historic areas and locations where business was conducted many years ago in a very different way, for example, Duiske Glass and Cushendale Mills. That would encourage people to know the brand and be able to identify it and buy it abroad. There is a coal mining trail. I would link it to Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, which has historically been a big coal mining district. These are the things we should be looking at as well as what is happening currently in the equine industry. There are horses in Ireland, horses being exported, sport abroad and sport in Ireland. There is a massive amount of money that could benefit the economy if we were to exploit all of that area. I agree with Deputies Lawlor and Gibney on what they said about festivals. We need to fund them in a strategic way. We need to give lot more funding through local authorities to ensure they can direct the funding to support the strategies they have for developing tourism. I urge that it would be considered seriously because the funding is very scattered and piecemeal. While there are big allocations, it is the smaller community efforts that should take pride of place and therefore the county should have a greater role in it.

Sentiment score: 0.28