The arrival of competition in the Irish market, particularly airline competition, meant the removal, virtually overnight, of the largest structural obstacle to tourism – the high cost of getting to Ireland. This meant that Ireland started at a disadvantage as against other countries in Europe, even compared to our next door neighbour, Britain. The success of tourism in the 1990s was firmly based on low cost access. However, I would not hold out the prospect that cheap access could do the same for us any more.