The Government will spend some €335 million out of a €800 million budget to promote Ireland as a holiday destination over the next seven years and has also promised to deliver a national conference centre in Dublin.
Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, today announced further details of the €800 million Tourism Development Programme under the National Development Programme 2007-2013.
Mr O'Donoghue said the provision of the new National Conference Centre in Dublin would constitute an essential and long-awaited element of national tourism infrastructure.
"The complex PPP tender process is very near completion and final Government clearance for the contractual arrangements will be given shortly," the Minister said.
The conference centre project is expected to bring in foreign revenue of between €25 million and €50 million a year.
Mr O'Donoghue's programme sets aside €148 million for education and training of the tourism workforce over the seven-year period. He said it was estimated the industry would need to fill an additional 6,000 jobs a year for the next 10 years.
The Minister said the commitment to "generously resource" the Tourism Marketing Fund over the life of the NDP would enable Tourism Ireland to plan future marketing programmes, to build on its reviews of key markets, including Britain, Continental Europea and North America.
He said the programme confirms the Government's commitment to the future development of the Irish tourism and hospitality sector and its appreciation of the economic and social importance of the industry, which employs almost a quarter of a million people and generates total annual revenues of €6 billion.
"The announcement comes at the back of a most successful 2006, in which overseas visitor numbers grew by 9 per cent to 7.4 million with associated foreign revenue earnings increasing by 7 per cent," Mr O'Donoghue said.