Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Job Creation Initiatives: Discussion with ConnectIreland

2:00 pm

Mr. Terry Clune:

That is a very good idea and we discussed it recently, particularly in regard to the four and five-star hotels. We propose the document we have supplied to the committee would be available in all the bedrooms of the hotels to deliver the simple positive message about Ireland and point out what Ireland is doing to fight back in terms of economic recovery. We have also met with people from the top golf clubs in the country with regard to how to inform golfers and caddies about this positive message. Caddies are there with the big businessmen who come here to play golf and they spend four or five hours with these people. After a while they get bored talking about golf and talk about business and other stuff. If the caddies are informed on our ideas, they are the perfect conduit to inform the golfers of X, Y or Z about Ireland and to suggest that if they are looking to set up a European operation, they could talk to this or that person. This is the simple model and if we can extend it to this and other areas, it will be very effective.