Mr. Louis Maguire:

The Chairman said we had strong relations with countries in the Arab world, and we have with some of those countries. I heard somebody boast recently that the value of our exports to the Middle East was €3 billion last year. I regard that as scratching the surface. There are approximately 400 million Arabs in various countries in the Middle East. The first point I will make is that every Irish company, regardless of what it has to offer, is welcome in the Middle East. As I said at the function to which the Chairman referred, the Irish are more welcome in the Middle East than they are in any other part of the world. In terms of trade promotion, we concentrate on Europe, which is an important market, but I recall that when I went to the Middle East in the early days there was no trade between Ireland and that region because there was an incorrect perception in some countries that Ireland was part of Britain, which stemmed from the occupation of the Six Counties. I had to first clear the air by reassuring people that this was not the case and that we had our own Republic. Once they heard that they all wanted to deal with Ireland. I have been going to the Arab world on a regular basis a few times a year for the past 40 years; I first went there in 1972.

There are many things that are right and many that are wrong in our country. One issue about which I bitterly complain is that of access to visas. For Arabs, whether they be dignitaries or people who want to work here or come here on holiday, obtaining a visa is an awful problem. For example, if one was living in Tunisia and wanted to travel to Ireland, one would have to get a visa from our ambassador in Madrid. Nobody in Tunisia is aware of that, and they must be advised of it. We now have a consul in Tunisia, but that visa process is ridiculous. Such an individual could possibly get a visa on arrival in Britain. Addressing the processing of visas is one area to be examined if we are interested in expanding tourism.

A delegation from the Saudi Arabia tourist organisation visited here in 2010. Many people might not think there is such an organisation in Saudi Arabia but there is. That delegation was here for three days. The members of it approached me on arrival and I met them. They wanted to meet people in authority. I will not pull any punches in saying that I contacted the Minister's office, but the Minister was not available to see them. The Minister's secretary suggested I contact Tourism Ireland, which I did. I asked whether these people could meet somebody in the organisation but there was nobody available to meet them for the two or three days they were here. I then asked if Tourism Ireland could at least put a package together and send it to the Shelbourne Hotel where the delegation was saying, which it did. I received a telephone call about a fortnight later from somebody in Abu Dhabi advising that he or she was looking after Tourism Ireland for Saudi Arabia. If the committee members want to confuse me, tell me something like that - how somebody in Abu Dhabi could be looking after tourism for Ireland is beyond me. I do not want to concentrate totally on tourism but I know the importance of the industry to every country. It was very important to us in the past and we have lost a bit of it. We as a nation are noted for going on holidays abroad and while our people travel all over the world, they mostly go to Spain and France and such countries. There are beautiful tourist resorts throughout the Middle East. One could have a lovely holiday in Morocco, Tunisia or Dubai at a much more reasonable price than one might imagine and there is no excuse for people not to travel there now that there are 17 flights a week, although they are mostly to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It is time we opened up flights to countries such as Tunisia and Morocco, where there are great tourism opportunities, and I believe they would reciprocate by sending their people here.