Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

We are in agreement that the tourism industry will be one of the more significant in the coming year. It will certainly require as much support as possible. The Minister mentioned that survival actions were being addressed so does that mean the abolition of the air travel tax may be possible? That issue is raised time and again by people in the tourism industry.

I have had correspondence from the Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland making valid points on the difficulties in accessing visas, particularly for people coming from places such as China. The process for them is very difficult and convoluted. One of the council's members recently spoke with an agent in Indonesia who said that he could sell 1,000 coach tours to Ireland this year with 40 people on each tour if it was not so difficult to get into the country. Will the Minister comment on how this might be addressed?

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