Mr. James McGinley:

I agree with Senator Byrne that the attraction at Dunbrody is worthwhile. Our coaches are there regularly and it always scores highly with our passengers.

I will briefly raise an issue that affects everyone presenting at this meeting, which is cruise tourism. Today, the Regal Princesscruise ship is in Cobh. Close to 3,000 people are coming off the ship and heading off in every direction – to Blarney, Killarney, Cobh, Kinsale and so on - benefiting restaurants and attractions. However, there is an elephant in the room, in that we believe cruise tourism will not continue at its current rate. This is largely due to the fact that cruise ships are no longer being taken into Dublin Port. Upwards of 200 vessels came to Dublin before Covid hit. Unfortunately, there has been a change of policy at the port and, due to Brexit, a shortage of space and so on, it is not able to take larger cruise ships anymore.

They are being pushed out to Dún Laoghaire, which for the time being is accommodating them, but the problem with Dún Laoghaire is that it is a tender port and the ships cannot get in to the quayside and they have to use smaller lifeboats to bring the passengers to the ships. On a day that there is a bit of wind or a high tide, a lot of the time those calls have to be cancelled. There is a cruise ship sitting in the bay but it is not able to get its passengers ashore, so those are unhappy passengers who are going to go back to the cruise company complaining that they did not get their call. Even last week there was a ship in Dún Laoghaire on a calm day, yet passengers were still delayed getting ashore by two hours.