This year has seen the largest ever budget being deployed for the international marketing of the island of Ireland. Tourism Ireland Limited, which was successfully launched towards the end of last year, has a total budget of €50 million this year, of which €27 million represents direct programme spend. This is supplemented by substantial budgets for regional and product marketing by Bord Fáilte, of the order of €25 million. Shortly after my appointment as Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism and following consultations with the industry and tourism agencies, I decided to reallocate a further €3 million in funding for front-line marketing activity. With the help of that funding, Tourism Ireland extended its marketing activities in those markets with the best prospects for generating visitors and revenue in the short term, targeting in particular Great Britain, closely followed by Europe and North America.