Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

A number of Senators raised the issue of the air travel tax. I met the airline operators to discuss this tax. The initial estimate was that the tax would earn €125 million for the Exchequer. That is a significant sum of money, particularly in the current environment. In light of the decrease in tourists and travel experienced this year, the figure will probably be smaller but it will nevertheless be substantial. We will not know the precise figure until closer to the end of the year. If we do not charge a travel tax, that money will have to come from elsewhere. The central issue in my discussions with the airlines was not so much what the passenger pays as what routing decisions the airlines make on the basis of the tax. As several Senators have noted, it is unclear whether €10 will make a significant difference to the individual traveller when he or she is already paying for their bags and other charges. It does, however, appear to have an impact on airlines' decisions. Senator Cannon was incorrect to claim that Ryanair has offered thousands of extra seats and hundreds of thousands of visitors solely in return for the removal of the air travel tax. As Senator Mooney pointed out, that airline is also seeking the reduction or removal of charges at Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports, as well as changes in respect of terminal 2 at Dublin Airport. If I am to present a case to the Department of Finance, I need to find out what exactly the airlines can offer in return for the removal of the air travel tax.

In terms of Ireland's marketing strategy, it is critical that we can present ourselves as an island at peace. Both parts of the island benefit from being marketed as one unit and for this reason Tourism Ireland is jointly funded on a North-South basis. There is nothing lovelier than to promote Ireland in New York, Frankfurt or London with the Giant's Causeway and the Cliffs of Moher on the same banner. We are thereby able to present Ireland as a small but beautiful island. Tourism Ireland uses the entire range of modern media to promote Ireland and it is represented on 41 websites and in 19 languages. It use social networking media, such as Facebook, to market the quality and value of our product. However, the message about value for money will not reach its audience until next year because we only began offering good value this year. Both those who stayed at home and visitors to the country found good value this summer but that message will reach a wider audience by next year.

The golden trekker and free travel offers were a huge success. We have not yet reached agreement on repeating these offers next year but I am hopeful that we will do so. The silver surfer programme, which offered two-for-one deals to senior citizens, was also successful.

Golf tourism has significant potential. I will take on board Senator Carroll's advice on amateur competitions. As Senators will be aware, Padraig Harrington is our golf ambassador and he has generously given his time and name to promoting the country. The title of our promotional campaign is "Time to Play" and it markets the concept of leisure and relaxation while playing on one of our 400 golf courses. The idea of attracting people to the country for a range of activities is critical. Senator Bacik referred to cycling. The programme for Government noted the difficulty with carrying bicycles by rail, on which we are following up. We have developed cycle routes and cycle hubs in places like Killarney and the Mayo Greenway, as well as walking routes throughout the country. Working in conjunction with Coillte, the Irish Sports Council and the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, we are seeing huge progress in this regard, including the development of playgrounds for children in villages and towns and the effort to ensure facilities are available for children, for whom we are always anxious to have more facilities developed.

Fishing was referred to. Senator Brady spoke of the importance of villages such as Howth, and the same is true of Dún Laoghaire, in trying to get yacht clubs, county councils, local businesses and politicians to work together in the interests of a town. This is happening. I opened and attended a number of festivals during the summer and made a point of ensuring it was not just the big festivals in Galway or Killarney but also what I thought would be smaller festivals, such as the Clogherhead prawn festival, only to find there were 2,000 people at the opening in Clogherhead and only 200 at some of the bigger festivals. This shows the initiative that towns are taking to generate interest and attract people to their areas, from which businesses benefit greatly. This will encourage the authorities to ensure important issues such as access, signage and ticketing are co-ordinated.

Building on other events taking place, we see potential in the 2012 Olympics and have launched DCU, UL and UCD as potential training places for teams coming to the Olympics. To date, we have had confirmation that the United States synchronised swimming team will use the National Aquatic Centre as their base on three different occasions. To have a team of that status will bring great publicity to the sports facilities in this country. We know the economic value for tourism of having, for example, Ireland playing France in rugby here or hosting the matches which took place in Thomond Park in Limerick. This type of sports tourism gives a significant boost in terms of business and accommodation in the towns involved.

I met the chamber of commerce in Donegal in regard to Derry being awarded the city of culture as I believe Donegal can benefit from that. The year 2012 provides a further opportunity, as Senator Mooney said, in regard to An Tóstal and the idea of people coming home and coming together to organise different events. I have asked Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland to progress this very quickly because I see significant potential in this regard.

As was rightly said in regard to cultural tourism, as we has exclusive rights to our culture, it gives us an added edge. People come to Ireland for its natural beauty and the friendliness of the people but also because we have a distinctive culture and visitors know they will have a very different experience from any other country they visit. We have been building on that in regard to capital infrastructure to be able to support visitors but also in regard to developments such as the census on-line facility. We have had 9 million unique visitors on the website of the 1901 and 1911 censuses and 240 million hits, which shows the interest. The next message to all those users is not just to look at the website to see about their grandfather, great grandfather and other ancestors but also to take this to the next stage and come to visit Ireland. We are building on that as well.

In the coming weeks, there will be much interest in the budget and related difficulties. At the same time, we will be undertaking strong marketing. We will attend the World Travel Market in London to promote Ireland and go to New York for Farmleigh Mark II and to promote Culture Ireland's activities in the United States - only for a day in each case, let it be said. Next year, there will be a focus on branding Ireland and we will also meet the media markets in Paris. We discussed previously the importance of the French market to us. In addition, we have visited Frankfurt to meet the market there. One of the great points about the way the tourism marketing budget is organised is that it is no longer spent over a whole year but seasonally, which means it is possible to identify new issues that have arisen. I know all in the industry are hugely committed to doing this.

I thank the Senators for their genuine interest and for their many suggestions which we will certainly follow up. There is an acceptance among us all that tourism is a vibrant, resilient industry which has the best interests of the country at heart. That is something I am very proud to market on its behalf.