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

The number of visitors for the first nine months was down 4.3% and the last quarter was particularly bad, which probably related both to the Olympics, which caused people to stay in Britain, and also the bad weather, which caused people to go to warmer destinations. In the same period the number of visits from North America was up 0.6%, the number of visits from long haul markets was up 3.7% and the number of visits from core Europe - the old EU countries - was up 3.8%. We have had growth from everywhere else but that has been pretty much cancelled out by a fall-off in numbers from Britain. Roughly 30% of visitors from Britain visit Ireland in September, October, November and December so I would not yet write off this year as there is still potential for us to recover some of those losses this year.

With regard to the Minister of State, Deputy Ring's work on the Olympics, he was very successful in enticing a number of teams to come and train here, in particular the UK Paralympic swimming team, the South Korean Olympic swimming team, the synchronised swimmers from the United States, the water polo teams and many others. I am not sure if the "Escape the Madness" campaign has been reviewed yet but it would be the normal process for that to be done. While we accept the hoped-for tourism growth did not materialise, the industry has noted that it came at a relatively modest cost and still managed to raise the profile of Ireland within Britain. People may not have travelled during the period of the Olympics, when they decided to stay at home, but perhaps they will come in the autumn and winter of this year instead.

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