Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I welcome the Minister's reply. I also welcome the survey carried out by the Director of Consumer Affairs because it highlighted that a number of licensed premises in the vicinity of the venues of major events had retained regular prices, probably as a result of public pressure. Despite the success of the director's initiative, headlines such as "Money Mad Culture Turn Off for Thousands of Dutch Tourists" have still appeared in newspapers. This headline will have been reciprocated in Holland. However, the reporter only spoke to four or five tourists, yet a damaging headline, which portrays a money mad culture, was used. What can the Department do to address recent negative publicity, particularly in light of the success of the Director of Consumer Affairs on the drink prices issue? Perhaps we might also see what we can do to rectify the bad media we are getting — the "Battle for Britain" returns. The Minister urged the tourism industry to review its prices. Tourists are rejecting "rip-off Ireland". We could go on, but when one gets into the detail of the reporter's presentation, one finds that we may only be talking about individuals. The entire tourism sector is being branded, although, as the Minister stated, the problem may be limited to a few individuals. What can we do to rectify that? Is there anything within the Minister's remit, that of the Director of Consumer Affairs, or that of another Department? We must do something to alleviate that problem. The reporters want to make something of it, but that is of no benefit to us, since there are no figures in support of the headlines.

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