John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I stated I was very pleased with the Central Statistics Office figures published earlier this month which showed a double digit growth in overall visitor numbers for the first four months of the year, driven by the British market which represented a growth of 12% or 127,000 visitors, which was quite considerable. The number of European visitors increased by more than one fifth, leading to an additional 97,000 visitors during the same four-month period. It is simply not correct to state the North American market was down for the first four months of the year. In fact, the year to date has shown an increase in the number of North American visitors of 1.7%. It was particularly pleasing that in the last month of the four month period examined by the Central Statistics Office, the increase was a whopping 12.6% from North America.

These figures overall confirm a pick-up of considerable proportions and even long-haul markets were up by over 3% after a slow start to the year. I am not saying these figures are reflected in every region but we are showing continued strong growth for the first four months of the year. That is not reflective of a stale product or one which people reject. It is the opposite. It is reflective of a product chosen by discerning visitors because of its quality. I have never denied the need to improve that. As I said to Deputy Wall, we will seek to do so through the new national development plan but we should not talk down our product.

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