John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I take this opportunity to congratulate again my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, on the agreement he concluded with the US authorities last week in the context of the current EU-US negotiations on open skies. This is great news for, and has been generally welcomed by, the Irish tourism industry, which will be a huge winner when the anticipated new and additional gateways in the United States are opened up.

The US market is our second largest tourism market, delivering close to 1 million visitors annually and generating a revenue spend of approximately €700 million. United States visitors stay longer, spend more per capita and travel more widely in the country, which is critically important for improved regional spread of tourism. The proposed new arrangements have major potential to open up a range of new air services between Ireland and the United States. According to some tourism industry sources, this agreement gives Ireland the potential to double the number of US visitors by 2012 to 2 million and should add each year an extra 150,000 visitors and €100 million in revenue to the Irish economy.

Market research carried out in the United States by the tourism State agencies in recent years has demonstrated a consistently high level of interest in Ireland as a holiday destination and a high level of unsatisfied demand due to the very limited number of direct access gateways and routes between Ireland and the USA. I am pleased that under the proposed agreement, Irish carriers will have access to three additional gateways from November 2006. I am also pleased that the need for a transition phase for Shannon has been recognised. I believe this breakthrough agreement represents a major opportunity for Ireland as a whole and it is imperative that the industry and public sector in the west, in particular, work together in a positive and integrated way to realise the great potential on offer. For my part, I will ask the tourism State agencies to take the necessary measures and work with the industry to capitalise on the very significant opportunities arising from Friday's announcement.

The Ireland-US bilateral agreement made sense at the time it was negotiated. Now, however, we must move on and grasp the opportunities for all regions, including the south west, arising from such a large potential tourism market that is well disposed to the Irish product offering. The conclusion of such an agreement has long been an objective of Irish tourism policy and was a major recommendation in the report of the tourism policy review group, New Horizons for Irish Tourism: An Agenda for Action, published in September 2003.

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