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

I am happy to work with Deputies Heneghan and Ó Muirí in their constituency, particularly as this is a very important project. We will be working on a number of projects in the context of our destination and experience development plan, which will chart the development of the area, over the coming months and years. It is important that this work links with that of our State agencies and local authorities. There are exciting opportunities in the tourism sector, and I relish the opportunity of working on them in the coming months. We have significant capital schemes that we will bring forward this year. We will also focus developing the brand. SMEs are critical - I keep coming back to this - because they deliver the authentic brand on our behalf. In that context, we have to up our digital game. There will be a lot of grants available to help businesses make sure that the information provided on their platforms is what is needed to ensure that what we have to offer is highlighted on the search engines people use to book tours, etc. About 30% of all people who come here use the Internet to assess the areas they are thinking about visiting. They use generative AI to set out their itineraries for the time they are here. We need to ensure that businesses here can advertise what they have to offer in an effective way online.

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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