Tourism Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

I assure the Deputy that any time I am marketing Ireland as a tourism product, it is the island of Ireland. We can see this in the infrastructural projects that reach into other sectors outside my Department. Through the shared island economic brand, it is very important to tackle the key infrastructural deficits we have on the island. We are being honest that they are there and very visible. We have a huge amount of work to do. From my perspective, I want to develop the brand and work on the infrastructural projects in the tourism sector. We will be taking some €7.5 million from the shared island fund to really penetrate into some of those key projects that need development in Northern Ireland, in particular the Causeway Coastal Route, the expansion of the Hidden Heartlands and the other projects I mentioned in view of the UNESCO status that Sliabh Beagh and other areas will get.
We are working very closely with Dr. Archibald, my ministerial counterpart in the North, on marketing Ireland as a brand. We are resourcing Tourism Ireland very strongly this year. As I said, boots are back on the ground internationally. We are going after new markets in the Asia-Pacific region and North America. That will yield significant results in the coming months and years.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-13