Mr. Niall Gibbons:

We have had a number of discussions with Airbnb. It is not as easy to quantify the scale and scope of it as it would be for, say, hotels that are registered when we know they have a bed on sale for 365 days of the year because someone could put his or her property onto Airbnb for two weeks and then take it off again. The average host earns approximately €3,500 a year. The size and scope of Airbnb has grown rapidly in recent years. There is no question about that. We are working with both Airbnb and our colleagues in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to get a better handle on quantifying what is involved. It has certainly played a much bigger role than it has done in the past three years. There has been significant growth.

In the context of the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland's Ancient East, I have been vocal about the fact that our overseas customers do not recognise borders. They are looking for an experience. That is the bottom line. There are really good opportunities for the Wild Atlantic Way, particularly in respect of linking to Derry. There have been many positive discussions in that regard. We talked previously about Derry being the intersection point between the Causeway Coast and the Wild Atlantic Way. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, that sort of peace story would go down well and would attract a lot of positive attention. Ireland's Ancient East stretches into the likes of the ecclesiastical capital of Downpatrick. There are real, good resonances in that regard. We and Fáilte Ireland - they have discussed the matter with their colleagues in Tourism Northern Ireland - are open to promoting them as combined experiences.

In the context of Ireland's Hidden Heartlands, a concept which has been developed by Fáilte Ireland and which is runs along the Shannon corridor, so to speak, it would be important that Fermanagh and the lake lands are included when its time comes to go into the international marketplace. That will be in the latter half of 2019.

I thank Senator Ó Donnghaile for his kind words. I have been personally committed to some of the developments in Northern Ireland. The work done on Féile 30 was outstanding. I first met those involved with the developments in question ten years ago. It is amazing to see the progress that has been made. I refer, for example, to the quality of the walking tours. The international journalists who come here have made positive comments in that regard. We had some industry people over from France recently who did the walking tour of west Belfast. It just opens up a whole new dimension of experience tourism for them. That is encouraging. I thank the Senator for that. We will continue to do it. We had a dialogue with the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland for ten years. It is a long journey to go but the EU interpretative centre has helped in that respect. I think of all the experiences to which I refer as being a flavour of things to do and see when one visits the island of Ireland. They also show the advantage of the diversity of it.