Mr. Mark Henry:

Deputy McLellan asked about the impact of the flooding. So far we have received no negative feedback. Perhaps all the tourist have not arrived yet, but to date there has been no particular negative feedback from overseas. Weather was an extreme event across the Continent this year.

Therefore, they might forgive us if not everything is perfect when they arrive.

The Deputy also asked about digital marketing, specifically the use of smart cameras. The opportunity we see in this area arises when tourists here use their cameras, thereby giving us the opportunity to take and use the pictures they post in our social media promotion. Most of the imagery we use in social media - we post lovely photos of Ireland every day of the week - is material we do not produce ourselves. We do not go out and take photographs but use material other people, including ordinary tourists, have posted. Often these are the best shots. People post lovely images and we see these as authentic.

On some of the issues raised by Deputy Coffey, our board was in Waterford last week enjoying the wonders of the Viking triangle. The board was given a briefing on the ambassador programme that evening. There seems to be very positive sentiment from the industry there in regard to the year to date. I will link his question on tourism ambassadors with the question raised by Deputy Griffin. I guess we are talking about celebrities here, such as the Kardashians and Chris Hadfield. Very few of our Irish celebrities have international fame across all of our markets. In other words, somebody who is famous in America might not be known in France. There are not a huge number of Irish celebrities who have the same degree of fame as Arnold Schwarzenegger. Therefore, we have tended to work with celebrities relevant to different markets. For example, we have worked with Chris O'Dowd in Britain and the United States, where he is known. Recently we worked with Andrew Maxwell in Britain as he is well known there. We have used our well-known golfers, mainly to target golfers who would know their names internationally. Therefore, we have used social media and publicity to work with people from time to time, where their diaries allow and where they are willing to do something for us, often for free to help out Ireland Inc.

In the context of people like Chris Hadfield or some of the international celebrities who were here, or the Kardashians, we work with them where possible. We worked with Tom Cruise last year and highlighted his Irish heritage. It is hard to sign up those international celebrities as regular ambassadors, but we make the most of these opportunities when celebrities are here. We are working proactively with a range of different people, from the Irish Film Board to the national cultural institutions, who have links with or see opportunities in regard to celebrities coming to Ireland, and we try to make the most of that. Some other film companies are in touch with us also from time to time. These opportunistic occasions are wonderful and we have built a kind of internal commando team ready to avail of these opportunities when we see them. For example, when it was apparent that the Kardashians were here, within 24 hours we had a social media video and press pack going international. We set ourselves up to be being able to respond quickly when these opportunities arrive, which often tend to be social media opportunities.

Roots tourism was mentioned and it was in that context we were working with Tom Cruise last year. We set up an Irish family history page on Facebook last year, primarily to highlight the roots gatherings that were happening last year - the clan gatherings and different events. That page proved to be hugely popular and we sustained it beyond the year of The Gathering and have changed it into a broader roots-tourism-diaspora Facebook page. It now has more than 230,000 followers globally, all people who are tracing their Irish ancestry. We have worked with the national institutions, the library and so on to highlight their collections. Not only those; we have also worked with the Irish Family History Foundation and some of the commercial businesses such as Find My Past and other organisations with genealogy products who can help ground people's general sense. Perhaps their great grandfather was Irish, but they are not sure from where and we can help them. We have held expert sessions where people who are able to say that their relatives are from a particular parish, which helps ground their particular interest in the geography, are given follow-up information on what to come and see and do in, for example, County Laois, if that is where their ancestry lies. We are also leading the charge on a national diaspora centre, which would be a positive contribution to the ancestry-roots-tourism story when this comes to fruition.

Deputy Griffin mentioned seasonality and spoke about how Scotland targeted him. We do the same. We target Scots, and the whole of Britain, to come to Ireland in the winter. We have been targeting many of the social energisers to get them to come here off season, particularly for events. We do a lot of work, for example, with TradFest every January to try to get people over from Britain and further afield in Europe where there is direct access throughout the winter. Events are an important reason for coming in the winter season. We also have a new focus in North America, in the USA and Canada, where there is now year-round access. This may not be for a weekend, but we promote a five-day break in the off season. This is a new focus for us in 2014, starting in the autumn, and will continue in 2015.