Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

In general, the figures for the first quarter of the year are telling in that they show a 4.5% growth again. I do not expect that level of growth will be sustained throughout the year but it is a good start and it will be helpful in terms of overall figures. Having breached the 8 million barrier last year the indications are that the figure will be about the same again this year. That would be a remarkable achievement given that it is more or less double the population of the country.

There may be some changes in strategy on the American market. Deputy Mitchell correctly highlighted the significance of the dollar value against the euro for American tourists. That has clearly impacted on Americans travelling not just to Ireland but to Europe in general. As I highlighted in my response, the extra funding for the wonderful west campaign, which was developed in consultation with local interest groups, and the targeting of the North American market in particular in the autumn was believed to be the way to go, not alone with the overall fund but with the €3 million additional spend allocated by the Government for the west of Ireland.

I have had discussions with some of the tourism bodies and they have informed me that there is also a strong concentration on the United Kingdom market to try to maintain the numbers that come to Ireland and to grow the market. The tourism bodies, which are in the best position to do so, are planning to realign some of the spend and they have realigned and moved forward some of the spending concentration to the market in the UK. Tourism Ireland and the local tourism authorities are and will be in discussion with each other specifically on the tourism campaign in the west.

I do not have any specific detail on a conference centre in the west. Clearly, the big priority is to get the first major national conference centre completed in Dublin.

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