Mr. Mark Henry:

I wish to pick up on some points. The Deputy asked about the new visa regime with Britain. It is very significant. We did some consumer research with potential Chinese visitors in March when the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport visited the place. He spoke at a few events and we set up a lot of industry events with him out there. The issue of visas emerged solidly from the research as one of the major ones. One can get a Schengen visa which allows access to more than 20 countries for one price and cheaper than a combined British and Irish visa. The problem is the cost and ease of getting visas, particularly if one must go to two different embassies to get two different visas to plan the trip, etc.

This initiative goes right to the heart of that and will make it a lot easier. In terms of getting visitors on to the island of Ireland from China, if they have to go to Belfast and come back, one is into all sorts of situations of needing two visas and multiple re-entry. This initiative is significant and it will very much assist us in selling Ireland through the tour operators and the trade over there. Our ambition in China is to increase the numbers more than threefold by 2020, so this is a very significant initiative which will help us to achieve that.