Pat Moylan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill and thank the Minister for his work to date on tourism development. I recognise also the work undertaken by the previous Minister, Deputy McDaid. He did an excellent job and it should be remembered that during his term of office many unforeseen difficulties arose which caused major problems.

The proposed authority will deal with the country as a whole, which is something that should have been done years ago. Nonetheless, I recognise the amount of work that has been done in the past by many organisations promoting tourism on a countrywide basis. In particular, I compliment all the regional tourism authorities that were involved.