Minister for Tourism John O'Donoghue has rejected calls for the retention of county tourism committees, because of too much "duplication, overlap and overcrowding".
He told Fine Gael spokesman Jimmy Deenihan that the county committees had already lapsed. "I am not announcing the death of county tourism committees, I am merely writing the obituary," he said.
Mr Deenihan said that by allowing the demise of such committees the Minister was "dismissing the role of local authorities and tourism committees" and this would "weaken our overall product and structures".
He said the Kerry committee had been effective. Local authorities made many of the decisions that affected tourism, including "signposting, roads, the provision of sanitation measures and, most importantly, the control of pollution and litter".
Important decisions were made by local committees as well as by regional and national agencies, he believed. The Minister insisted, however, that "too much duplication in tourism is a mistake. It leads to inefficiency and ineffectiveness".
He pointed to the reform of tourism structures with the establishment of Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland. The final phase of the reform involved restructuring of "sub-national" structures. The New Horizons report recommended regional tourism boards and there was a need to "target the resources we have in a measured and focused way".
He added that the effectiveness of the county tourism committees "is quite debatable. Some of them met infrequently, many of them were barely staffed and it is clear they were under-resourced and had limited access to finance".
He added that "local authorities are adequately represented on the new regional development boards".
However, Mr Deenihan warned: "Unless there is a strong voice for tourism in a county like Kerry, tourism interests will not be represented." He said that "western regions are currently losing out to eastern regions in terms of tourism".
Local authorities are the most important structure in the State and the Minister "is dismissing it as regards tourism development and that is unfortunate."
But the Minister said the committees had already lapsed. He appreciated that significant energy and activity existed at county level but experience of the committees was "mixed and inconsistent".
Local authorities still had a role because they were involved in the regional authorities and "they have a substantial role to play through their elected members and county managers in that respect".
