Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Growth has been quite bumpy. Growth was very high in the first half of the year, which probably reflected the fact that the ash cloud depressed the number of tourists coming to Ireland in the second half of the previous year. Growth was slightly negative in some of the later months of the year, but if the airport figures area anything to go by, December is very good. There was an 11% increase in people using Dublin Airport in December 2011, when compared with December 2010. That is very encouraging. Events in the world economy and in the eurozone could present problems for us this year. It will be hard for us to meet our 4.5% growth target if our major markets go into recession.

The VAT change helped to address the perception of Ireland as a high cost destination. A visitor attitude survey published today shows that there has been a considerable improvement in visitor attitudes to Ireland as a high cost destination, particularly among British tourists, which is really important.

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