VISITORS TO Ireland are put off by the drunken behaviour of young people in every small town and village as well as in Temple Bar in Dublin, the Dáil has heard.

Fine Gael Wicklow TD Billy Timmins said it was not an attractive experience for foreigners visitors “to see young people falling around stoned out of their brain”.

People were concerned about the closure of traditional Irish pubs, he said. However, “in Temple Bar and every small town and village in the country, young people are stoned out of their minds late at night every weekend having consumed naggins of vodka on a river bank before heading to the local disco”.

Mr Timmins did not know how the problem could be tackled but he described it as an “epidemic” and said older generations were not aware of the extent of the difficulty.

He was speaking during a resumed Dáil debate on the National Tourism Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, which provides an extra €85 million over a number of years for Fáilte Ireland to spend on improving major tourist attractions.

The Wicklow TD also warned that funding should no longer be allocated on the basis that “those who shout loudest get action”. He said tourism standards here “are not sufficiently high”.

Mr Timmins said “funding that has been allocated across the country has not always been allocated in an integrated manner for the common good” and much of that funding over the past 10 to 15 years “would not stand up in a value for money audit”.

He also said that as an island on the edge of the Atlantic, Ireland “should be the Bermuda or Hawaii of Europe. There are some 500 million people in Europe, most of whom have never seen the Atlantic. “We have never targeted these to the extent we should, particularly central Europeans such as the Germans, Swiss and Austrians”.

Brendan Griffin (Fine Gael, Kerry South) called for the development of winter tourism. Once October 1st arrived, “it is almost as if a tap has been turned off and the overseas visitor figures drop”. He believed Ireland could have a 12-month tourism industry. “We have everything we need to attract visitors for fantastic holidays.”