Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

It was a very important conference of the Irish Hotels Federation, people who are on the business front line trying to attract tourists, which is so important to this country. We are aware of how hard hit these people are at present. The Leader and I took part in several of the discussions at the conference. The federation made a useful proposal with regard to extending free travel to all European Union senior citizens. These people could come in their millions to Ireland. We need every extra visitor we can get, and senior people have time, discretionary income and the inclination to travel. I fully support the Irish Hotels Federation in this regard. We should seek to advance the proposal in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Ireland must position itself properly and I am anxious to hear the Leader's response on behalf of the Government to the proposal.

In conjunction with that, I wish to refer to something mentioned by Senator O'Toole yesterday. We must not stop anybody who is in a position of leadership in this country visiting abroad for St. Patrick's Day. These are front line ambassadors, be they Ministers, Deputies, Senators, council cathaoirligh, councillors or mayors. We need all that goodwill scattered worldwide for St. Patrick's Day to attract every extra visitor possible to this country in this difficult time for us and our economy.