Mr. Eoghan O'Mara Walsh:

The local authorities work in a far more coherent manner on tourism than they did in the past. The development of the regional brand experiences has been positive. The "Wild Atlantic Way" was the inaugural one and is still the best template. It covers something like nine counties - there are 18 in "Ireland's Ancient East I think, we can look at a map later - in and around the western seaboard. Those nine counties have coalesced behind an umbrella brand. From an international tourist perspective, a French person, an American or whomever does not differentiate between Wicklow and Wexford. Instead, they need an overarching umbrella brand identity. Fáilte Ireland has led the way on this and has done particularly good work on it. Recently, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the local authorities. The local authorities will market their region under the brand umbrella. Local authority investment in tourism is better spent on product, on creating new things to see and do of scale and international appeal within their particular county. That will be beneficial in the future.

We have 56 recommendations in total. We plan to return to the strategy every six months or so and review how it is progressing. We do not view this as the sort of document that will gather dust on a shelf. Instead, it will be dynamic and will be reviewed on a regular basis. We will go back to it and review - in a public and transparent way - how many of those 56 recommendations are progressing in the right direction, are stalled or are in fact going backwards. There are quite a few enabling factors in there. We are confident that the private sector of tourism will do its bit. It has been proven to do its bit over the last few years.

I refer to the construction of new hotels, the development of Dublin Airport and attractions around the country, such as the aforementioned Centre Parcs in Longford and so on. The private sector will do its bit. Equally, we feel that the State has to step in with Brand Ireland and new tourism development. That is a key requirement. We have called for €50 million in additional budgets for the two State agencies per annum to allow the growth ambitions within the strategy to be fully enabled.

That is a key message we are keen to convey.