I welcome to the Public Gallery students from the St. Joseph's Mercy Secondary School in Navan who are appearing today as witnesses at the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. Ms Mia Galligan and Ms Mya Doocey are guests of Senator Cassells and are hiding somewhere, as I cannot see them. They are very welcome and I thank them for being here today. I call Senator Cassells to speak now, please.

I thank the Cathaoirleach very much and I thank him also for his welcome to Ms Mia Galligan and Ms Mya Doocey who are witnesses today, as the Cathaoirleach has said, at the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. These are two transition year students and it is highly commendable that they are here today as witnesses for a full Oireachtas committee. The received a commendation at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition for the research they carried out on the impact of periods on young female athletes and their participation in sport. This research has been done in conjunction with elite female Olympians. It is a highly commendable piece of work and we look forward to their presentation at the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media later this afternoon.

I also want to speak about the fact that the new media commission, Coimisiún na Meán, launched its work programme yesterday. I commend it on that. It is great that it is up and under way. We worked long and hard on the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill in this Chamber and it is great that an coimisiún is now working on implementing the new regulatory regimes for how these online service providers deal with harmful and illegal content. We have had it for too long and it is great that an coimisiún has come out with a very strong intent on how these companies will be handled. It is not afraid and will not shy away from the fact that the major players are here. This is a very good thing from a tech point of view but, equally so, it is not for us to bow our knee to companies which flagrantly flout the law either and we have very comprehensive legislation now to deal with that situation on online safety.

I also welcome the fact that an coimisiún has spoken too about media development and about the new journalism scheme to support reporting of local courts and local democracy. That is important because last week we had the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report into the media in Ireland which showed a decrease in the consumption of news in Ireland and a reduction of trust in the media in this country. That is a worrying trend. We need to ensure we stand and regain that connection between the public and our media organisations. The new media commission will ensure that happens.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I wish to raise a couple of issues and I concur with the comments of Senator Cummins. I also ask that the Minister look to expanding the roles in the various higher education institutions across the therapies. This is an issue of which everyone is well aware. There is a shortage of occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, speech and language therapists and this is an area which also needs to be tackled. I call on the Minister to issue expressions of interest to the various universities to provide extra places and to provide therapies for those children most in need.

Another issue I wish to raise is in respect of rural development funding. There are a number of projects, and one in particular in my own area, which secured funding a number of years ago in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland. This was the development of a heritage centre, the Knights & Conquests Heritage Centre in Granard in north Longford. Unfortunately, the tenders which have come back in now have gone to €1 million plus over what was granted in funding from both that Fáilte Ireland programme and from Longford County Council. I am looking for additional funding to be put in place from the Department of Rural and Community Development to ensure that project gets off the ground. Unfortunately, it is stalled at present so I am appealing that extra funding be put in place.

I ask the Leader to pass on that to the Minister in question.

In regard to tourism, this issue has been all over the media in the last 24 hours and I have looked up the prices in a number of hotels. All of us on the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, including Senator Cassells, fought for and supported the reduction in the VAT rate, yet we have a situation where certain rooms will be cheaper in a couple of weeks than they will be in 12 months, whereas certain hotels tell us it is about the last-minute purchase of rooms. Twelve months out, some rooms have tripled in price. The committee is currently putting together a report on the development of rural tourism for publication in the coming weeks. We must acknowledge the knock-on effect this could have on all rural tourism.

The Senator should conclude.

The reality is that tourist numbers are down regionally across the country and tourism spend is down in public houses, restaurants and so on due to the lack of rooms, yet some of the hotels do this. It is in Dublin - I will call it out. This could destroy the tourism industry in this country. We have to look seriously at what mechanism we can put in place to stop this happening while supporting the rest of our tourism industry. The reality is that they are being informed by some of the concert providers as to when a concert is coming, and the prices go up a day or two before the concert is announced. I know this for a fact.