Mr. Richard Guiney:

Mr. O'Connor has given a very good outline of the situation. The most significant aspect for us with regard to Dublin town is the engagement by cruise tourists with the independent retail sector in the city centre. We have a visitor assistance team that visits each of the ships that comes in so we have a good handle on what people do when they arrive here. Approximately half go on pre-organised excursions throughout the country and Ms McCarthy will be able to provide more detail on this. The other half spends its time in Dublin city centre. The tourists take the hop-on hop-off tours. They spend quite liberally and very much engage with independent retailers. They have a strong interest in buying Irish designed products. They buy a lot of crafts, art, jewellery and Irish manufactured fashion. Their spend is significant and certainly the feedback we have received is that this type of tourist turning up and spending kept many businesses in business during the dark days of recession. Their spend of several thousand euro was the make or break for quite a number of businesses and for the sources of their products. From our perspective, the spend is significant and we believe that at a time retail is challenged by online competition, losing it could lead to closures in the independent sector.