A Government backbencher told the Dáil that Ireland should do something about its international image for alcohol abuse.
Ms Cecelia Keaveney (FF, Donegal North-East) asked what image the State wanted to present abroad. "Is our country to be a place where people come and drink until they drop ? Is the only positive thing visitors will say that they were able to drink tens of pints?
"It is grand to link alcohol with our image in some respects, but we seem to be creating an image of ourselves as people who drink until we are senseless and fall down. I enjoy a drink, but we need to examine our drinking culture."
Ms Keaveney was speaking during the resumed debate on the National Tourism Development Authority Bill, providing for the establishment of a national tourism development body.
She said that Ireland also needed to deal with its environmental image.
"We need to deal with our litter problem and the fact that people are able to purchase cars that have failed their NCT tests, drive them around for a couple of days or weeks, burn them out and leave them as eyesores. The local councils will have to get some support to get rid of the cars."
Mr Eamon Ryan (Green Party, Dublin South) said the unprecedented growth in tourism in the 1980s up to the mid-1990s had created its own problems. Certain locations were put under too much stress.
"They received too many visitors in small areas and the quality of the welcome and the service decreased and the price of the service increased dramatically." Mr Ryan said that Ireland should not be fatalistic and accept the deterioration in the quality of the welcome for tourists.
"The industry has been very aware of that and has been very keen to change it. I hope the State will row in to review the procedures and structures in the industry to try to undo the trend of poorer quality."
Mr Phil Hogan (FG, Carlow-Kilkenny) said that State agencies should be more pro-active in the tourism area.
"They should develop more proposals and seek investment from local, national and international people to develop the product in areas suitable for tourism development."
He added that Dúchas was an unsatisfactory organisation in the delivery of its expenditure and product.
There were many examples of where money had been allocated but not spent, he said.
"In 1995, the Augustinian priory in Kells, Co Kilkenny, had money allocated to it under the operational programme on heritage, but eight years later that money has not been spent. It would not happen in the private sector.
"Eight years later, there is nothing to see but a room in this beautiful village which is a spin-off location for visitors to Kilkenny city. The priory has a great deal of history attached to it and it is an important national monument. Nobody in Dúchas seems to care or show responsibility or accountability for money allocated eight years ago," Mr Hogan added.
