Sir, - If your readers ever get an uncontrollable urge to be mischievous, but, being grown up, want to retain their dignity and composure, can I suggest going into the Department of Finance and whispering the words "dedicated taxation".
The reaction is reminiscent of more youthful days and saying a rude word while being made to sip rosehip tea with a particularly prim and dour maiden aunt.
Ignoring the visibly paling, tight-lipped response, dedicated taxation has proved a successful means of generating revenue in many countries for a range of vastly different ends. Despite the slammed doors and bloodied noses, this council continues to campaign for a proportion of tobacco tax to be reinvested in a trust which would provide badly needed funding for sport, as is successfully done in New Zealand and Australia. But there are other areas where dedicated taxation seems a most sensible solution - in particular the development of our tourism industry. There is no doubt that tourism is making a tremendous contribution to Ireland's current financial success. However, with
1999 and the expected reduction in EU grants casting a shadow on our golden horizon, now is the time to review alternative sources of finance to sustain our success. DISC's particular concern is the public and private sector development of the sports tourism market, but there is a myriad of other tourism strategies, e.g. building on the success of the St Patrick's Day festival, capital investment in our national heritage, such as Collins
Barracks, and the promotion of business tourism, which have tremendous future potential. One alternative source of tourism revenue is a visitor levy - the argument being that the facilities which attract and are used by tourists should be partly maintained by monies gathered from them. Two options seem to be the most popular, namely a set departure tax or a levy on bed-nights. The latter is employed by many cities around the world, especially in America.
Although the US tax system is more conducive to such revenue generating instruments, with careful balance, we too could benefit from such strategy. A
small levy on every bed-night would produce significant revenue for reinvestment in the industry. It's not too late to consider such measures seriously and find a solution which will be amicable to tourism interests and its consumers while allowing us to continue to develop new products and markets. - Yours, etc.,
Siobhan Tyrrell, Projects Executive, Dublin International Sports Council,
Merrion Square, Dublin 2.