Tourism: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-06-10 ============================================================ Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath I thank all the Members for their contributions and you can see by the varied nature and degree of contributions how important the tourism sector is for the Irish economy. It is our largest indigenous sector, with 228,000 people employed in it, which is about 300,000 people on an all-island basis. Some 46,000 businesses right across our country really offer that authentic céad míle fáilte and are central to delivering that product for an indigenous sector. That is why I really welcome the fact that tourism is now at the very heart of the Department of enterprise, reflecting the huge amount it brings to our economy, indigenous sector, employment and, indeed, careers, which will be a very important part of my new strategy, A New Era for Irish Tourism, which looks at growing career pathways in the tourism sector, particularly with our tertiary education partners. It will be important over the years ahead. I note from this year, 2026, that we have seen a significant uptick in visitor numbers. About 564,000 visitors completed a trip to Ireland in April 2026. That is up by about 7% on 2025 and 3% on 2024, which was a significant year for Irish tourism. I believe we are back in a growth phase. We have seen since the start of the year that we have grown visitor numbers and spend, which is so important. Through the sectoral plan, we have amassed about €400 million to support the growth of the sector, realising the ambition that many businesses have and working with sector representatives across the economy. Month after month, I hope we can work together to secure the ambition in A New Era for Irish Tourism, which is significant with regard to the growth we are planning and obviously have to realise, with a 7% target for less mature markets, and 6% and 7% targets, respectively, for overseas and domestic visitors, and try to grow our jobs from 228,000 to 250,000, which would be a significant ambition and challenge. I took a view when we were drafting A New Era for Irish Tourism that if you cannot measure something, you cannot manage it. That is why we now have key performance indicators over our 71 objectives in our new tourism plan. This is to ensure we are managing the actions of our State agency, Fáilte Ireland, and the work it does, and that we can measure that and see the output from the capital spend. That will be important. I will take a number of important actions this year. We will have a new culinary strategy. It is important that we bring together our distilleries, artisan food producers and the exceptional offering we have for food in this country. I note from some of the research coming through in markets in which we are under significant pressure, particularly European markets, that many have a very different view of the food offering in Ireland until they come here, taste it and see the huge offering and authenticity of the produce, and the exceptional, sustainable way we have of producing our food. People are so impressed. I want to draw that together with our distilleries, put together a solid package this year and develop a strategy to grow that sector. We will also come forward with an accommodation strategy. I note there are many counties in which viability is a significant question in trying to construct hotels and high-quality accommodation. We have the strategy open for public consultation right now. It will be important that we look at other ways in which the State can help to grow our accommodation, particularly the delivery of hotels. We know that in many towns and villages hotels are a focal point for many of he milestones in life. People share so many of their milestones in the setting of a family hotel. I am focused on working with the hotel sector to try to grow it and ensure we get more high-quality hotels in the country. A number of Deputies raised the matter of short-term lets. The Government is clear about the direction we are taking here. First of all, we know the sector has grown by about 10% per annum over the last number of years. It is very difficult to have a sector grow at that scale when there is no regulation underpinning it. It is clear to me, as tourism Minister, that a number of counties rely on short-term lets to capture the opportunity that tourism presents and bring life into many local communities. There are far too many counties in the midlands, on the west coast and south coast and in parts of the east coast where it is essential to have a viable short-term letting proposition to bring tourists in. I am focused on ensuring that, in our big cities, where there are acute shortages of accommodation in our long-term rental market, we bring that accommodation back into the long-term market, and that where we have areas with a population of less than 20,000, which we set as a reasonable metric in the most recent census, we can continue with strong short-term letting accommodation. We will provide a mechanism through the work we are doing and which we are finalising. It is important that people who are in that cohort continue to offer the operation they have. I am also working on areas that are part of the curtilage or premises, or, to put it quite simply, are not suitable for the long-term market. A bit of common sense is needed to ensure they can continue to operate in that regard. I have met representatives of all the short-term letting agencies. I have been very accessible. They were in Leinster House and I brought them to my Department. I met eight or nine representatives. I met a number of them in many different counties. We had a by-election recently in Galway, where I met many of them in Galway West. That is why I am clear that I want a balanced approach. We extended the registration period to the end of December, so people can regularise and the gun will not be to their head immediately. There will be a clear pathway for areas with populations of less than 20,000 to ensure that sector can continue. The last thing I want is to see communities where we need that accommodation miss out on that tourism opportunity. Equally, we have to be clear that, given the huge need for long-term rental accommodation and the huge challenge with homeless people in our society, the Government cannot stand idly by and allow a sector grow incrementally each year. When we see that in the cities accommodation is only utilised for three or four days a month, we have a real concern. That is why the needs of society and rural communities need to be balanced. As a member of a rural community, I know very well what is needed. Critically, with our accommodation strategy, we have reduced the number of hotels contracted out to the State very significantly. Some 13% of hotel accommodation was under State control. That has gone down to under 6%. We want to continue that progress so that those hotels come back into community use and are available for visitors and tourists alike. They can then use them and bring life back into the night-time economy, which is critical. I am committed to doing that as part of our tourism strategy. I should also mention our strategic air access fund. It supports new routes. We have about 23 routes to North America. When we get boots on the ground, we market it and drive the opportunity through to ensure we are capturing people coming into the country through those new routes. That will be critical. Later this year, Fáilte Ireland will bring forward a number of capital programmes that will look at how we are developing the 46,000 businesses in our country to capture the opportunity for tourism. People coming into our country do the vast majority of their research on the web. They use the Internet to research their bookings, to book and to look at what attractions are on offer. About 30% of people use generative AI to plan their itineraries. If there are attractions and a large numbers of events in communities which cannot be captured by those search engines, we have a real problem. That is why I want to drive digitalisation and supports into many of the businesses so that they get picked up in those searches, as well as supporting them with regard to viability and utility bills, which are challenging. Much work will be going on with businesses over the course of this year, with our new capital programmes and looking at our attractions. As Deputy Kelly pointed out, the spine of the country is critical. Much work has been done with the Wild Atlantic Way and coastal areas, but the spine of the country and our less mature markets need a lot of attention. Our tourism plan will be looking at how we can develop the centre of the country, from north to south, to ensure that all communities around the country get to experience the opportunity and value that tourism brings, and what it brings to our rural communities. I pointed out earlier the number of jobs in the tourism sector, at 228,000. I want to continue to grow the North-South link, which we will work on through our shared island programme. Deputies will have seen Fermanagh come into Ireland's Hidden Heartlands, the work on Narrow Water bridge, Carlingford Lough and all the other areas that can be expanded. We also have the causeway coastal route linking with the Wild Atlantic Way. There is a huge opportunity ahead. We will do our best to ensure we chart this sector through an uncertain geopolitical landscape. I am well aware that there is an opportunity for Ireland because what we have to offer has never been greater. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-10