Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

A number of things impacted on the decline of tourist numbers. One is the economy in other European countries and the United States. The very poor weather at the beginning of this year impacted severely on us and then the volcano affected numbers travelling. If one throws into that mix the sterling and dollar differentials, one sees that many issues impacted on our tourist numbers. We do not have direct evidence to say the tax was one of those.

It would appear that when individual passengers are travelling the tax itself may not be an inhibiting factor in making choices. However, I understand from meeting with airlines that it impacts on their choice of where to put their routes. That is an even more significant issue for us. If aeroplanes are not coming into Ireland, tourists cannot come.

I met Mr. Christopher Mueller of Aer Lingus and Mr. Michael O'Leary of Ryanair. I would be interested to hear more specifically from them what they would do if the tax was removed. If we remove a tax that has the potential to bring in €125 million in a year, we may well have to find that money somewhere else. The would have to make a very valuable contribution to the economy.

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