I am the Labour Party’s spokespersons on Tourism, Culutre and Sport. This wide and challenging brief covers areas which affect Irish citizens every day of the week. Now more than ever, it is vital that we support these areas as essential to our society and our economic recovery. The importance of these areas cannot be overstated:

Culture

The arts have a defining role in who we are as a nation.

They arts are arguably our most famous export from James Joyce to W.B. Yeats; from Seamus Heaney to Samuel Beckett; from Brendan Behan to Brendan Gleeson.; U2 to Mary Black; Brenda Fricker to Maureen O’Hara.

The arts are vital to every person in this country from the local drama society to the National Orchestra, the Wexford Opera Festival, the Abbey Theatre and the various works by our sculptors, artists and composers.

Sport

Sport links every single community from local parish GAA teams right up to national squads.

Sport plays a vital role in our communities, in our health and well being and in our economy.

As a small country, Ireland has many outstanding successes on the International arena- Sonia O’Sullivan, Brain O’Driscoll, Brian Kerr, Katie Talyor, Eamon Coughlan, Bernard Dunne.

Tourism

Torusim is one of our most important economic and employment sectors.

Over 7.8 million people visited Ireland in 2008, generating €5 billion in economic activity and employing over 275,00 people.

In rural and coastal areas such as the West Coast, tourism can be the single largest employer. Irish Tourism is facing into its most difficult period in recent history and new and innovative solutions are required.

Dublin South Central hosts some of the most famous tourist trails- The Liberties, Kilmainham Gaol, Guinness Storehouse, IMMA and Christchurch.

Over the past 12 years the areas of Tourism, Culture and Sport have been neglected. While a large amount of money has been spent in these areas, often times the best use of funding was not achieved and political interest took precedence over the best interests of the community. Now we are facing into deep cuts across the area, despite its importance to Ireland culturally and economically and its importance to helping Ireland grow out of the recession. The Labour Party believes that it is vital to maintain the highest possible level of funding in these areas. We do believe however that new and innovative ways of channelling central funding should be established, that the best performing programmes should be maintained and that new initiatives and policies should be established in other areas.

I would welcome the views of any visitors on Tourism, Culture and Sport and your opinion on the future development in these sectors. The Labour Party is in the process of updating our strategy for these areas. In the meantime please see below Labour Party policy documents and some of my most recent questions to the Minster for Tourism, Culture and Sport.