I was struck by the comments of the new CEO of Tourism Ireland reported in this morning's edition of The Irish Times. "We have a calculation around revenue per carbon footprint," she said. She continued: "If we're going to bring someone from the other side of the world, we're going to make sure we target [those who are] valued-added, and [not those] coming in and out, leaving a carbon footprint, but without bringing value." She also discussed capacity constraints at Dublin Airport and in the accommodation sector, and said there was "still room for growth" but that it "needs to be responsible growth".

I have a number of questions around that. On the one hand it seems sort of ideologically neutral but sometimes the application of something that appears ideologically neutral has a profoundly biased effect. Increasingly, and for a long period of time, we have had a concentration of all tourists coming into Dublin and being bused for a day to the Cliffs of Moher and back again. Is there any examination of how sustainable that is? Is there any examination of whether there is a very wealthy or not-so-wealthy cohort of people who wish to see, travel to and stay in the west of Ireland, so they are not coming into an overcrowded airport through an overcrowded city to be driven across the country and back again? They might, perhaps, buy a cup of coffee or perhaps not. Perhaps they will go to the toilet and if they do, that is as much as they do.

Is there a tourism strategy that takes account of that? If not, any talk about sustainability and sustainable tourism is nonsense. All it does is say that because there is a shortage of beds in certain parts of the country, we need to just bring in very wealthy tourists. Is there any consideration of the effect that the Government's policy on housing refugees, people seeking asylum and people who are beneficiaries of temporary protection is having on our tourism sector? I understand that, as a stopgap measure, one takes whatever is available. However, we all accept - the Taoiseach, his Government and Ministers included - that this is no longer a short-term issue but a longer term issue. Between 40% and 50% of the hotel beds in Clare are filled with such people. I am not saying they do not need a bed - they clearly do - but, arguably, if they are to integrate into our economy, they need a bed where they can get a job. There are not a load of jobs in Lisdoonvarna, unfortunately. There are lots of them in Dublin. What is the Government's long-term plan around tourism and the sustainability of the tourism sector?

I have always been a huge supporter of the tourism sector and industry. I got to work very closely with it for three years as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. I have continued to engage with it and I really find people who work in the tourism sector to be among the most hospitable and welcoming people, and among the best businesspeople we have in the country. I will never forget that in the 2011-12 period after the financial crash, three sectors lifted us out of that recession, namely, the multinationals, the agricultural and food sector and also tourism. We owe them a debt of gratitude for that. Tourism has the benefit of being able to create jobs all over the country, in the cities and also in rural areas.

We are experiencing a climate crisis, though. I think that is obvious to everyone in the country and the House and we have to take account of the impact that international and internal travel has on the climate. It has always been the case that we have taken into account not just the raw numbers of people visiting the country but also the spend. It would not be a secret to anyone in this House or in the tourism industry that, for example, somebody coming from the US who spends a week in Ireland and travels around the country will be of more economic value than somebody who comes and makes a short weekend visit. We have always taken into account both the numbers visiting and also the revenue brought in but people are welcome no matter where they are coming from or how long they stay.

On sustainability, we believe busing will become sustainable most quickly. Electric and hydrogen buses already exist. They are already being used and manufactured on the island. I anticipate that in the next ten years, we will see bus transfer becoming very environmentally sustainable. When it comes to aviation, the focus has to be on sustainable aviation fuels. It is early days yet. We want Ireland to be a leader on that. Ireland will always need aviation. It is an island, after all. The focus that we want is a move to sustainable and synthetic aviation fuels so that we can make that sustainable into the future.

With regard to tourism policy, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, is going to publish a new national tourism policy. That will be done in early 2024. It will focus on the environment and also economic sustainability for the sector.

I find the Taoiseach's answer somewhat surprising. On the one hand, he says we need to curb international travel and take account of sustainability while, on the other, he wants to lift capacity limits at Dublin Airport. Nowhere has he discussed exploiting capacity at other airports so that people are flown directly into a region that they might stay in, when, one hopes, there is a greater balance in how people are accommodated. These people need accommodation but the State has to match that with what it provides. Instead, the Taoiseach says that this practice is going to be sustainable. We are going to have electric buses bringing them from Dublin Airport down to the west so that they can see Kylemore Abbey, the Cliffs of Moher or whatever it is and back again. Suddenly, that is sustainability. I do not wish to mischaracterise what the Taoiseach has said but that is how I have interpreted it. He might explain, if that is not what he said, what he means by sustainable tourism and balanced regional tourism in this State going forward.

I am happy to clarify that I have not called for a curb on international travel; far from it. That is not my position whatsoever. I said that we have to take account of it and that some journeys are more valuable to the State than others. I have given the Deputy an example of exactly that. I also said we need to make sure we move towards sustainable aviation fuels. That is the future. The future, for me, is not stopping flying. I do not want to stop flying either, by the way. The future is a move towards sustainable and synthetic aviation fuels, in my view. We do need to take account of it and we also need to consider offsetting. As the Deputy knows, Government Departments do that as a matter of course.

The Government also has a policy of favouring the regional airports such as Cork, Shannon and Ireland West airports and others. When it comes to Dublin, as the Deputy knows, we take money off Dublin Airport in the form of dividends and other charges. When it comes to the other airports, we provide funding. We provided considerable funding for Cork Airport recently and also for Ireland West Airport and Shannon Airport. It is good that those airports are seeing real passenger growth now. I would like to see a lot more of it. We also need to be honest with people. Airlines decide where they fly. Airlines will make decisions, more often than not, as to whether they fly from Birmingham or Dublin rather than Shannon or Cork, and that is the reality. We need to be honest with people in that regard.