Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland are two distinct agencies and both work well. One could ask the reason any country needs to have two tourism agencies. Tourism Ireland has a particular remit by virtue of the fact that it markets Ireland internationally as an island. Fáilte Ireland, on the other hand, is responsible for the domestic market. While the marketing of Ireland internationally is going very well, the domestic market saved the tourism industry this summer. One change that should be made is to make the chief executive of Fáilte Ireland an ex officio member of the board of Tourism Ireland and vice versa. A change in legislation may be necessary to do this.

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