AQW 24624/17-22

Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 20/10/2021
Answered On Date: 24/01/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy whether the Home and Attractions scheme will be launched this year.

Answer:

The proposed NI Holiday at Home voucher scheme was outlined in the Phase Two Tourism Recovery Action Plan to support and rebuild the tourism sector.

Tourism NI designed a scheme and developed a supporting Business Case. Unfortunately Departmental economists were unable to confirm that it offered value for money, so I therefore issued a Ministerial Direction to my Departmental Accounting Officer as I very much recognised the continued pressure the sector is under, particularly when restrictions on trade remained in place.

As set out in Managing Public Money, any Ministerial Direction needs to be endorsed by the Executive or the Minister of Finance. Unfortunately, neither the Executive nor the Minister of Finance were willing to endorse the issuing of a Ministerial Direction. I regret therefore that the proposed scheme can not now progress.

I informed the Economy Committee and representative bodies of this decision on 2 December 2021. I know this decision was a considerable disappointment to the accommodation and wider tourism and hospitality sectors.

We will continue to work hard to deliver on the actions within the Tourism Recovery Action Plan to help these sectors on their recovery journey.