Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which I am aware has received some media coverage in recent days. However, the decision to purchase the domain name Ireland.com from The Irish Times was an operational decision by Tourism Ireland and its board. Tourism Ireland is a North-South body that is jointly funded by the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. The issue of accommodating existing @ireland.com e-mail address holders in as helpful and fair a manner as possible is clearly the responsibility of The Irish Times and one over which I have no responsibility.

With regard to the decision to purchase the domain name from The Irish Times, I understand that Tourism Ireland firmly believes that having a simple domain name like Ireland.com will have significant benefits. Primarily it is felt that given the ease of recognition and memorability, the new domain name will deliver greater "stand out" for Ireland around the world. From a tourism perspective, Tourism Ireland believes the move is timely for a number of reasons. First, it is at present redeveloping its suite of websites with the aim of capitalising on the ever increasing importance of the Internet for the planning of holidays by potential tourists worldwide. Second, we are in the advanced stages of preparations for The Gathering Ireland 2013, Ireland's biggest ever tourism initiative. Having a simple domain name like Ireland.com can only help in projecting an even stronger online presence to achieve our ambitious targets for visitor numbers.

It is also worth putting on the record the business case advanced by Tourism Ireland for purchasing the domain name. I understand that the cost involved was just under €0.5 million. While this is a considerable amount of money in the current economic climate, Tourism Ireland is in no doubt that the cost represents very good value. The rationale for this belief includes the fact that at present Ireland.com is a competitor for search engine traffic. In other words, when people overseas are searching online for information on holidays in Ireland, they may be directed towards this site rather than existing Discover Ireland sites. Accordingly, the acquisition will be beneficial in accessing that traffic.

Second, it is believed that the simplicity and directness of lreland.com will facilitate an increase in direct traffic and will also help capture increased organic search engine traffic. Furthermore, Tourism Ireland's business case for the project identified that cost savings will also be achieved through a reduction in its paid search engine optimisation activity. In this regard, a proportion of Tourism Ireland's marketing budget each year is devoted to ensuring that the Tourism Ireland website is advertised on search engine sites such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. In fact, Tourism Ireland's projections show that the costs of the acquisition will be fully recouped in just over three years.

Reverting to the issue of the existing e-mail subscribers, I understand that The Irish Times has contacted all @Ireland.com subscribers to advise them that the e-mail service will be discontinued from 7 November 2012 in terms of sending or receiving messages. Users will, however, be able to access their account until 7 December for the purpose of transferring any data currently saved on their account. To help users to move easily to a new provider, I am informed that The Irish Times has a helpline in operation from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. and there is also a step-by-step guide available on the Ireland.com website to assist its customers with the transition.

In conclusion, my primary focus in tourism is obviously to ensure that we do everything we can to grow visitor numbers in the years ahead and achieve our ambitious targets in this regard. At the same time, I share the Deputy's desire to ensure that nobody is inconvenienced by the purchase of the domain name as discussed. However, Tourism Ireland only bought the domain name, www.ireland.com, and not the customer database of e-mail subscribers. Therefore, any decisions relating to the e-mail service and the matter of accommodating existing users are entirely the responsibility of The Irish Times. I hope the efforts it is making to facilitate a smooth changeover for its clients will continue right up to the transition date.

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