When I was told that I had 90 seconds to talk about tourism, my first thought was "Aw fliuch", because tá sé ag cur baistí i gconaí an t-am ar fad, so we have to make use of the fliuch or the wetness in Ireland. One of the ways to do it would be to promote Ireland as a more climate-friendly destination to people from the likes of Spain and the south of France. They could come here, get a little bit of coolness and have a great experience. To tie in with that, i ndáiríre, we also have to make sure that we have proper canopies for cover, especially in our key tourism heritage sites. I mentioned in previous debates that we should have covered areas, both for markets and for eating, so that all the main streets of our tourist towns would have a canopy. It keeps the sun out, but it also keeps the rain out. If the Spanish, French or the Germans want to go for a hike in the rain, that is their prerogative and we should encourage that and promote it. Equally, when people want to enjoy the other experiences in Ireland they cannot sit outside, especially during the winter months. I note that the strategy references promoting more visits from May to October. Some of those months are dry but some of them are quite wet. We also have the potential in January and February for people with their coats on to sit outside in the fresh air have a cup of tea or coffee or have breakfast, but those coverings need to be in place. In terms of the strategy, maybe the Minister could look at that dry coverage for key tourist destinations.

Sentiment score: 0.30