Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

The visit of Queen Elizabeth II was a great success and helped showcase Ireland overseas. Her visit to Cashel, which was a major part of her trip, was great. I was pleased to visit Carrick-on-Suir with the Deputy last week. Unfortunately, we did not visit Cashel but perhaps we can do so the next time I visit the area. A report is being done at Department level and in consultation with the industry on what we can do to better harness the British market. Half of all overseas tourists come from Britain where our tourism industry is not making the recovery we would like. Some work is being carried out to identify what can be done to improve our position in the British market. British people now travel less than they have for a long time. I recall reading a stark statistic showing that British people travel abroad less than they did in 1989. The United Kingdom is our most important market by a mile and even a 2% or 3% increase in numbers from Britain would be worth more than a 10% or 20% increase from the long haul markets.

See this speech in context