Mr. Paul Kelly:

We do not have evidence at this point to have confidence to say we would be successful in any one of those markets. We need to ensure that when we invest that money and go out to those markets, we will go out to markets that work. The answer may be Spain, for example, but not Portugal, or vice versa, or it may be Greece or Croatia. The honest answer at this time is that we do not know. We hear different things from different people and different anecdotal evidence. We need to do the right work. Just as when Ireland markets itself internationally, we do not take a scattergun approach and spread our money all over the place. We go where we know we could have the greatest impact in bringing in international visitors. We need to apply the same rigour to getting insights and conducting research such that when we go out to try to bring in workers, we will do so from the right markets whereby we will be able to entice them in and they will be able to stay and have rewarding careers here. Obviously, that applies to countries within the EU, where there is not a requirement for work permits. The core issue relating to work permits, as the representatives from that industry highlighted, concerns the speed at which they can be processed to allow people to be brought in.

To return to the Senator's question about the summer season, there are different sources of data regarding what way it is going to go. There is going to be a good rebound in international tourism this year. Summer air access will climb to about 93% of what it was in 2019, which will be a phenomenal recovery. The work the Government did in response to the aviation task force, building and supporting the aviation industry to get that air access back up, deserves great credit. We, along with our colleagues in Tourism Ireland and the industry, are all doing our respective bits to bring in international visitors. Much of this depends on which period of the summer we are talking about. The average for the full year may be 60% of the figure in 2019, but we have lost the first quarter of the year, so it will equate to between 80% and 90% over the summer.