Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

To be a victim of crime while visiting any country is appalling and it wrecks a tourist's whole experience. There is in all European countries a tendency in criminal quarters to target tourists and I do not believe we are any different. However, 500 out of the total who visit Ireland is a very small minority. We have set up the Irish Tourist Assistance Service which had 293 referrals in 2005, 17% less than the previous year's figure of 353. Some 476 tourists benefited from assistance given by the service while 357 days were spent on helping tourists solve problems arising from such crime. There are interesting figures on the Irish Tourist Assistance Service's website, which I recommend to the Deputy, and information on where offences were committed etc. The highest incidence was in Dublin and, for the first time, Galway stations referred the most cases outside Dublin with ten, County Wicklow referred nine; County Kerry, six; County Clare, five; and County Limerick, four. They are small figures, however, and we should not talk up the problem and damage our tourism industry.

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