Ms Ruth Andrews:

To take up the point on bridging the gap between the international and the domestic, there are a number of recommendations to help drive the domestic market and they will require additional investment. As Mr. Gallagher said, it will be about encouraging people. Unfortunately with Covid, as we have seen only this week, with regard to the best laid plans in terms of dependency on the domestic market between now and Christmas, the rug has been pulled from under us for no good reason other than that public health needs to be protected. There will be pent-up demand and of this I have no doubt.

It is encouraging to see we have signed up to the EU traffic light system. It is also encouraging to know the Minister, Deputy Ryan, is looking at appropriate testing regimes to enable international travel. It is not just for the sake of the tourism economy, it is about business tourism also. It is about the economy as a whole. We are a small open economy and we need to get our borders open again. It will be critical that we get back to that. There is significant hope that by the end of the second quarter of next year we will see international travel start at some level to come back in a very safe way.

We will continue to look at the domestic market. We do this every year and it is important that people realise it. Domestic tourism is very important to us and it brings significant spend, particularly into the regions and particularly during the off-season. It has a huge value for us. We will continue through Fáilte Ireland to look at ways to activate and get more people holidaying in the domestic arena.