Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa:

I agree with the Senator. We are very much aware of the enormous potential tourism has for the islands. I mentioned we have almost finished our bilateral consultations and we have yet to meet two Departments. One of those is the new Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. One of the items on the agenda will be how we can maximise the potential for developing tourism in the islands. It was already signalled in Our Rural Future that one of the ambitions we have is to continue to enable visitors to enjoy all the attractions islands have while also, of course, adhering to our primary objective, which is to support sustainable and vibrant communities on the islands. The development of tourism on the islands needs to be considered with sustainability in mind. We are very conscious of that, as are the island communities themselves. That will certainly be on our agenda for the meeting in the coming weeks.