Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I must first declare that I was formerly a manager of Bord Fáilte-Fáilte Ireland. I worked in that agency for almost eight and a half years. I take on board what the Deputy had to say. The US market is looking good, as is the mainland European market. We expect to meet The Gathering target of over 300,000 visitors and €170 million in revenue. As a Government, we have been very proactive in this area. The changes in VAT have delivered thousands of jobs across the country.

On the Deputy's specific comment in relation to Germany, which is an important market for Ireland, German tourists are product orientated, be that fishing, walking, cycling and so on. We concentrate a great deal on those activities. From a competition point of view, Germany is in the centre of Europe, which means its tourists can travel by car or rail to many destinations. Tourism Ireland, supported by Fáilte Ireland, is currently engaged in a great deal of work in the German market. I disagree with the Deputy that there is an over-concentration on the online marketing of tourism. Statistics indicate that from a tourism planning point of view people are doing more online. I believe we need to put more rather than less resources into this space. From a decision-making point of view, it is the ultimate tool. The websites discoverireland.ieand discoverireland.com , which I registered in a previous life, are the real marketing tools for this country. We need to promote them as much as we can.