Tourism Industry
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-22
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Niamh Smyth (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I thank Deputy Cahill for his really important question on the hospitality sector. As set out in A New Era for Irish Tourism: National Tourism Policy Statement, the Government will continue to take all feasible steps to reduce the administrative burden for SMEs and the costs of compliance. This recognises that many small businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector can face productivity challenges arising from administrative complexity and regulatory requirements that may be time-consuming and costly.
In support of this objective, Fáilte Ireland will embed better regulation principles and streamline its working practices by reviewing the administrative requirements placed on businesses, employees and consumers. Fáilte Ireland will also work with other agencies and bodies to advance the simplification agenda across the tourism sector.
Better regulation and simplification are a priority for this Government and one which we have made progress on. Actions taken by our Department include grant simplification, faster approvals, progressing EU regulatory relief, which exempts 80% of small business from the scope of the EU corporate sustainability reporting directive and the expansion of the SME test. We also continue to strongly engage with business on streamlining regulation.
Our national regulatory framework needs to be a focus for the Government as we strive to support competitiveness at a time of international economic uncertainty. The regulatory burden on business was highlighted by the chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council at the annual competitiveness summit on 13 July 2026. The cost of business advisory forum report, published just last month, also highlighted excessive and overly complex reporting and compliance obligations, while analysis from the OECD shows that Ireland scores below average in its ex-post evaluation of primary laws and secondary regulations. My Department will shortly follow up with relevant Departments on progressing implementation of the forum’s recommendations.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-22