Mr. Lorcan O'Connor:

In regard to Fáilte Ireland, I have been working in Carrolls for 30 years and I go back to the days of Frank Magee, Dublin Tourism and Bord Fáilte. The bodies were primarily set up by hoteliers.

They only count tourists who stay in hotels. A tourist who comes in and buys a cup of coffee or a gift from any of their members is not valued in the Fáilte Ireland or Dublin Tourism figures, which basically look at bed nights and so on. The turnaround business is where we could prove that these are people who will stay but if they are in Dublin for a day, they are only here for eight hours. They will not stay in a hotel or wherever but they will shop for a gift, buy a cup of coffee or whatever. I am part of the Dublin Town initiative, and I was part of the Dublin City Business Association before that, and we criticised the tourism authority for not taking that into account. We need to get out of the hotel bedroom mentality and look at tourists coming in for a day on cruise ships or on ferries from the UK. That is all part of the tourism offering. There is still the mentality within Fáilte Ireland that unless it is a hotel bed night, it is not a proper tourist but these people are contributing a huge amount to the economy.