Mr. Paddy Mathews:

The idea behind the Wild Atlantic Way was to aggregate all the various destinations along the west coast to an offering that had scale and singularity and would be more visible overseas. There were approximately 35 different driving routes along the west coast, with only three of them crossing a county boundary, making them very local and not really visible. That was the unifying idea behind the Wild Atlantic Way. There is very clear evidence that this will be very successful, we are looking to apply the same thinking to the south and the east as well. It will not necessarily manifest itself in a single route. That was quite a bespoke solution for the west coast, as most of the areas were along the coast and were easily linked up with a single route. There is a more dispersed richness within the south and the east, with the core attractions in inland towns balanced with the very strong coastal richness as well. The solution will be slightly different and we are not sure how it will manifest itself but we are focusing very intently on the south and east with the idea that we need to group and aggregate the very rich heritage that is within the Viking triangle as the Deputy mentioned, the new medieval mile in Kilkenny, the grand tour in Kildare and Wicklow, the prehistoric riches in the Boyne Valley and Cork Harbour. There are areas between them such as the Blackstairs Mountains and the Barrow Valley in Carlow and the Comeragh Mountains. We are looking at the theme of culture and heritage and how we can group them together for overseas marketing so that they get the scale and singularity. It helps Tourism Ireland to get a clearer focus and a clearer resolution on what that area has to offer. Once people get there, the diversity that exists can be made more apparent. There is a very clear focus on this. We are working with international consultants on helping us shape that proposition and we hope that will be more evident in the third quarter of this year. There is a very strong piece of work being done on this area. There will be two very strong propositions, the Wild Atlantic Way and the other dealing with the south and east. The detail has not emerged just yet, but I think we are on the right track.