Mr. Pat Dawson:

It is absolutely huge. The business section of our business is worth €500 million a year and the vast majority of that involves long-haul travel to the United States. I see Aer Lingus has pulled some routes from the United States already. US visitors do at least one if not two years planning in advance so this summer is now a write-off for American visitors.

What we do now will affect next year for tourists. We must be seen to move and get our act together quickly to get tourists back because Americans can go to plenty of other countries. They do not necessarily need connections in Ireland but many of them come here to see this green country, and Irish and American people get on well together. The problem is that this season is lost and we must now work on the next season. In terms of inbound and outbound tourism, not alone do we send many hundreds of thousands of people on city breaks to San Francisco, Florida, New York and Las Vegas, etc., but there have also been increased flights out of Ireland over the last number of years with American carriers and Aer Lingus. There has been growth but we will lose it because everyone is running after the business so we must not be left behind. Mr. Hackett would like to add to my comments.