An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel

I join everyone in offering my sincere condolences to the family of former Senator Ernie Caffrey. I know him when I was a member of Young Fine Gael in University College Dublin, UCD. We were coming in and out of the House at various times, and he was always an absolute gentleman. I had not seen him for a long time. I send my condolences to the Caffrey family on their sad loss.
At the convenience of the Leader, I request a debate on active tourism. This country has so much to offer in walking tourism, cycling tourism, walkways, cycleways, hill climbing and mountain climbing. In my country of Clare, we have the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher walkway, the proposed cycleway along the former line of the west Clare railway and many other activities. I sometimes think they are not marketed as one product in the effective, efficient and productive way they could be. The Cliffs of Moher walkway had thousands of people walking it but it has now been closed for some time for health and safety reasons. It needs to be reopened as a matter of urgency. I am sure there are other walkways and potential walkways around the country that are not achieving their potential for one reason or another. I would like to hear what the Minister for tourism has to say about these projects and how an effective and efficient international marketing campaign could be put together to promote active tourism. Many examples of active tourism are not weather related. Given that the weather in this country is precarious at the best of times, I believe we need to be looking at year-round activities to build a year-round tourism business, on top of the successful tourism business that we already have.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09