Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister. I realise tourism is a key priority for the Minister, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, and the Government. Tourism is a competitive market and our keenest competitors invest heavily in their tourism infrastructure. The information available here so far has shown that tourism is now joining the agrifood industry as a good news story in our economy. I have no doubt that the measures the Government has put in place to date have contributed to this. In particular, the VAT reduction that the naysayers declared would not be passed on is, in fact, being passed on to the consumer. In addition, the visa waiver programme will continue to contribute because it removes the red tape and barriers that would have been in place previously. The benefits from this will be seen during the London Olympic Games with spin-off tourism here.

Interest in Ireland as a tourism destination remains strong and the key to this is our branding as a product. It is difficult for us to think of our country as a product but it is in terms of tourism. We are ranked 10th by the World Economic Forum for marketing and brand effectiveness. This says a good deal about the people who have been in charge of our tourism product. If we get our branding and marketing right then employment will follow. I welcome Tourism Ireland's new advertising campaign, Jump into Ireland. It is a global campaign to promote Ireland overseas in the coming three years. Tourism Ireland intends to have 9 million visitors by 2015, which is significant for a small island such as this one.

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