Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I am making the point in general terms. There is no doubt that in broad terms, everybody would prefer if the tax was not there. I will not defend it as a positive mechanism for encouraging people to come to Ireland. I agree with the Minister for Finance that the books must be balanced in the very difficult circumstances we are now experiencing. My preference was to maintain the tourism budget, and this is probably shared by the industry. We have tripled the product development budget.

On the second point, the visas, I spoke only this week to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on the matter. Some of our officials are trying to resolve this at the highest level, although there are difficulties which impact to some degree on the tourism side. There is a balance to be struck to take into account the economic tourists who come into the country and have no intention of leaving and those who are genuinely coming on holiday. We need to resolve the matter as the eastern markets hold great opportunities for us.

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