John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

The Ryder Cup 2006 will be one of the greatest sporting events ever to come to Ireland. It will be a landmark not just for Irish golf but for Irish tourism generally, with 40,000 people attending the K Club each day along with 2,000 members of the media and 1 billion people worldwide watching the event on television.

It is already nearly impossible to book accommodation for Ryder Cup week within 80 miles of the K Club. This provides the clearest possible indication of the appeal of the event and I trust that all these enterprises and other tourism service providers will do Ireland proud on this great occasion and give Ryder Cup visitors a traditional Irish welcome and a quality experience to remember. The value of word of mouth publicity cannot be underestimated and we want our visitors to return home with glowing reports about their stay here and confirmation that the hospitality and friendliness for which we are renowned really does exist. More importantly, we want them to be able to say that the golf was excellent, that they received value for money and that they want to come back again.

I am aware of concerns being expressed by some about the risk of excessive prices being charged by certain elements of the Irish tourism and hospitality industry during next year's event. The State tourism agencies are being particularly vigilant in this area and in all their dealings with the industry are taking the opportunity to encourage a commonsense approach to the pricing of our tourism product. Notwithstanding the operation of free market forces, I particularly urge service providers to take a long-term perspective on the benefits of the event. These will only come about from positive word of mouth when our visitors return home. Golf tourism is important to us, which makes it all the more necessary that there should be no short-term or opportunistic exploitation of our visitors. It is my intention to raise these issues, as appropriate, in my regular contact with the industry in the build up to the Ryder Cup.

I believe that Ireland will deliver value for money during the staging of the Ryder Cup. The vast majority of visitors will have purchased packages that have been priced now for quite some time. Furthermore, all approved accommodation providers will have published maximum prices that they cannot legally exceed. I intend to ask the Director of Consumer Affairs to undertake a special initiative around the time of the Ryder Cup to ensure that price lists in restaurants and public houses are displayed prominently.

All sectors of the tourism industry are acutely aware of the value for money issue and the available research from Fáilte Ireland through its visitor attitude surveys suggests that, in an overall context, the consumer is satisfied with the cost of accommodation and the cost of the golfing product in Ireland. As the level of overseas competition continues to grow, I am assured that there is no complacency around the issue of value for money and that the tourism industry fully recognises that if we do not look after the consumer, we will lose market share.

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