Ms Ruth Andrews:

It is a cause of great frustration, but it is also something that the industry has to accept. We want tourists and visitors, including business people, who come to the country to feel welcome and safe. The industry has done a great deal of work on ensuring that we have the appropriate safety protocols in place. The guidelines have been issued and implemented across the industry with great gusto. As we build towards reopening international access, we will have the assurance that we have a product that is ready and able to welcome our visitors back.

The situation is frustrating because people do not make decisions about holidays two weeks before travelling. As such, the green list was never going to work for us, particularly in longer haul markets. However, Ireland has now committed to the EU traffic light system. From the get-go, we said that it was integral that we have alignment across Europe and that Ireland be a part of it so that the appropriate safety protocols and testing regimes could be put in place. Conversations between the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the airports are ongoing to ensure that they are working towards an appropriate testing regime and that what we implement is satisfactory to the European countries from which we will welcome guests.

Without doubt, there is a great deal of frustration. Where securing business tourism is concerned, tour operators get clients who make decisions about where to go on their holidays six or eight months out. Currently, we cannot give people commitments because we cannot confirm that they will be able to get into the country. To be fair, that is not just an Irish problem. It is a global frustration. Examining the issue meaningfully now and working through it during this difficult period will bring us to the point of being able to welcome more international visitors as early as possible next year.