John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 17, 23 and 25 together.

I am aware that concerns have been expressed about the risk of excessive prices being charged by certain elements of the Irish tourism and hospitality industry in the context of the Ryder Cup taking place in Ireland. 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 products. In addition, my Department wrote to the Director of Consumer Affairs last November requesting that a special initiative be undertaken around the time of the Ryder Cup to ensure that price lists in restaurants and public houses are displayed prominently. The Director of Consumer Affairs has informed me that the appropriate checks will be carried out.

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 for quite some time. Furthermore, all approved accommodation providers will have published maximum prices that they cannot legally exceed. Nevertheless, I will continue to raise these issues, as appropriate, in my regular contacts with the industry and in the media in the build-up to the Ryder Cup.

In particular, I urge all tourism service providers to take a long-term perspective on the benefits of the event. The value of word of mouth publicity cannot be over-estimated 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 exists. More importantly, we want them to be able to say that the golf was excellent, that they received value for money and that they will want to come back again.

I do not believe that the decision of the Government not to include the Ryder Cup on the list of designated events for free-to-air transmission will have any adverse impact from a tourism perspective. My Department was consulted about the possible designation. As the House will be aware from the press statement issued at the time by the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, the decision not to so designate the event was made on the basis that it did not meet all the necessary criteria and the reasonable expectation that it would remain outside the remit of free-to-air for 2006 given that it had been decided not to include it at the time of the first designation.

From a tourism perspective, media access to our key international markets is paramount and in this regard the Ryder Cup represents an unprecedented opportunity to showcase the island of Ireland to a worldwide television audience of 1 billion people in 150 countries, including 56 million golfers worldwide. Earlier this year I announced that, in addition to providing an additional €4.5 million to Fáilte Ireland to support an enhanced programme of marketing and promotion activities around the Ryder Cup, it was agreed that Fáilte Ireland would engage with the European Tour for delivery of an appropriate complementary programme of events, including initiatives intended to raise the profile of the occasion within Ireland and enhancing the official opening and closing ceremonies.

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