Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I accept that the trend is positive in spite of the increasingly competitive global market. I wish to raise some questions about the short and long term in this regard. While the British market has increased overall since 2002 following the previous year's foot and mouth disease crisis, I suggest the decline in relative terms vis-À-vis other European destinations, for example, and the resurgent North American market is directly related to walking holidays. In that context, does the Minister support calls by the IFA for some form of payment for guaranteeing access to land, or at least maintaining marked ways, and will he liaise with the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in this regard?

The issue of peak oil, which the Greens have been talking about for years, is eventually getting the media attention it deserves. In five or ten years' time it could well be the case that medium and long haul flights, including cheap flights from Europe to Ireland, will be a thing of the past and it will be increasingly difficult to market Ireland as a cheap affordable destination when fuel and oil prices make it very difficult to get here.

In this context should we not be making as much strategic preparation as possible to target the British market in the long term and to encourage British, French, German and Dutch people to come to Ireland? These countries are near enough to Ireland. The price of flights will inevitably rise and jobs in the tourism industry will be affected unless we have a strategy in place now to deal with something which is not that far away. Has this issue been discussed at Cabinet?

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