Mr. Shaun Quinn:

The Deputy has raised a number of issues and his points about the marine sector were very well made. Despite the fact we are an island, we do not tend to play up our coastline. I may leave the issues raised about the Wild Atlantic Way and, possibly, the marine to my colleagues, Ms Monaghan and Mr. Paddy Matthews, who live and breathe the project because they are largely responsible for where it is today.

The Deputy began by talking about the domestic market, which is incredibly important, particularly west of the Shannon where a very high proportion of bed nights are domestic. While we really want to grow the international business, we know we cannot do it overnight. Therefore, getting as much growth as we can into the domestic market is incredibly important and we pursued a similar approach in Ireland late last year. As we did with Tourism Ireland previously, we segmented the market and identified three segments for growth. Our new marketing campaign is under way and the workshops we are running with the trade focus in on the three segments because we believe that there is more growth. The Deputy's point was very well made. One cannot take one's foot off the pedal in terms of the domestic market. Even the good weather can change people's minds about the domestic market and we hope it will have a very positive impact this year.

Similarly, in the area of corporate and business tourism, which is incredibly important to the industry, not everywhere in the country, but certainly in the larger urban centres, we are very involved in bringing large conferences to Ireland. It is a growth area which has grown in the past three or four years and is growing again. We have the infrastructure. For example, the National Convention Centre Dublin allows us to play in a bigger league than we have never been in before. That does not mean the business only goes to that location, but by virtue of having the facility, it puts Ireland in a better place.

With regard to the disposal of assets, we can talk about the specific issues another time. In the main, we do not run tourist attractions. We inherited a number of properties throughout the country and we are in the process of disposing of some of them. It is a disposal of State assets so we comply with all the regulations. I will keep the Deputy's point in mind and we can discuss specific issues later.

With regard to the VAT rate and other measures, we could easily say the agencies should be given more money, but we support any measures that will keep down the cost of doing business, which is what the VAT rate and travel tax have done. There are ongoing issues such as inequitable local authority rates or whatever, fuel costs and whatnot which will be raised by the industry. We support anything that can be done, even across the public sector, to keep down the cost of doing business and assist competitiveness. My colleagues will deal with the Wild Atlantic Way issues.