Cyprian Brady (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

When we are in a position to do away with this tax, it will be done.

The domestic market in Ireland now accounts for 65% of business in the intensely competitive hotel sector. That is a very significant proportion of hotel business. The State agencies have done a great job in trying to promote the domestic market, and there is a great future for that. Deputy Kitt mentioned the national conference centre, which is in my constituency on Spencer Dock. That is due to open on time in September 2010 and it will provide a great boost to business and conference tourism in future years. I do not know whether a €10 charge will make a major difference to people attending conferences at the centre. While the global economic conditions remain challenging, the level of bookings and inquiries about the centre are very encouraging. It has recently announced that it has confirmed 29 international events, with over 236,000 delegate days secured. That is a major boost to any economy. I do not think those delegates would not come here because of the tax.

In 2009, some 6.927 million overseas visitors came to the Republic of Ireland. It was a decrease on previous years, but there were record increases for the previous five or six years and we could not sustain that anyway. We must ensure that we can provide the services for the millions of people who visit this country, and that there is a standard of service that competes with the rest of the world. We have put major resources into maintaining that standard. We put major resources into training and education for our young people in management and accounting services. Some 3.25 million of those people came from Great Britain, while 2.38 million came from mainland Europe. Meanwhile, 0.98 million came from North America and 0.31 million came from other areas. We know where our market is and that was taken into account with the introduction of this tax, where there was a €2 charge, as opposed to a €10 charge, for our main market in Britain. The introduction of that tax will not deter those people from coming to Ireland. There is a huge opportunity for us to continue to sell Ireland as a destination and we have managed to do so. The air travel tax will raise €125 million in a full year. The question is whether the tax has an influence on people travelling here. That aspect should be examined.

If the opportunity arises and things improve, we could look at reversing the tax. In the current economic climate, however, all sectors of society must contribute. The incoming Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Deputy Mary Hanafin, has a long association with travel matters. She will bring a new vision to the Department and I am sure that in future every effort will be made to ensure that Ireland competes internationally on a favourable basis with other destinations.

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