John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

As I have indicated on a number of occasions, the industry has become much more competitive. It is a difficult old world and one must ensure that one puts one's best foot forward at all times. On the question of family holidays, traditionally many of the families came from Britain. That is why, following on from a slight decrease of 1% in the numbers coming from Britain last year, we engaged in one of the most comprehensive tourism marketing surveys ever undertaken in Britain and much important information was obtained by tourism agencies from that. Many of the plans I outlined have emanated from that survey. I am confident that the work of Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland will yield benefits. I am conscious that it is cheaper to travel by air than at any time in the past. Our objective must be to ensure that the traffic we can attract through the same process is maximised to the greatest possible extent. That is precisely what we seek to do. The end-of-year figures will indicate whether we have been successful. If we are not, we will have to re-examine the strategy.

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