Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy John Perry, to the Seanad and congratulate him on his appointment as Minister of State with responsibility for small business. He is well qualified for the position, given his first-hand experience of running a number of enterprises in Sligo and Ballymote. He is a politician who is not just given to rhetoric. Like me and a small number of other Members, he has proven experience of the day-to-day realities facing any business, particularly small businesses. I wish him well in his new post.

I was elected to the Seanad as the nominated representative of the Irish Exporters Association, based on my experience as the co-founder of a successful exporting company - Lir Chocolates - which today employs up to 250 people. I have the experience of co-founding a business in a kitchen, progressing it step by step to create a sustainable business. We started Lir Chocolates during the last recession in the 1980s and there was a great thrill in seeing an unemployed person get a job, his or her confidence and physique restored and enjoying the social intercourse that came with it. People forget that somebody who is unemployed misses the company of others. We have to challenge more people to start up businesses in order that we prevent growth in the number of long-term unemployed. I cannot think of anything worse to befall a person than long-term unemployment.

I welcome, as does the Irish Exporters Association, the many positive measures included in the jobs initiative announced in May to boost job creation and economic activity. I will focus on two topics covered by the plan, namely, tourism development and finance for small business.

The measures to boost tourism are most timely, namely, the reduction in the VAT rate from 13% to 9%, the offer to suspend the air travel tax - I do not know why a Fianna Fáil Minister could not have done this - and the innovative acceptance of UK visas for visitors from 14 countries. In 2007 there were 8 million overseas visitors to Ireland. Last year the number was just over 6 million, a catastrophic drop of almost 2 million visitors. Visitors bring new spending to every county. A recovery in tourism numbers is probably the fastest way of injecting much needed spending into all parts of Ireland via shops, restaurants, bed and breakfast establishments and hotels. I commend the Government for the joined up thinking shown in the package of tourism related measures. There is no doubt that the visits of Queen Elizabeth and President Obama will further encourage people from the United Kingdom and the United States to visit Ireland. I regard the recognition of UK visas by visitors from 14 countries as particularly significant and innovative. The new scheme will benefit visitors from the immensely important countries of Russia, India and China. Until now, visitors from these 14 countries had to file for separate visas for Ireland and the UK, await the decision and pay a fee of €60 per person. Recently, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, cited the example of an Indian family of four who wanted to travel to Ireland as part of a trip to London who would have had to have paid €240, or €60 per person, to come here. Now, that family will not pay visa fees for their visit to Ireland. I looked at the list when the announcement was made, and it is a miracle that last year 30,000 people came from the 14 countries. If the new visa waiver scheme is properly marketed and publicised, I suspect there will be a dramatic increase in the number of visitors from these countries.

The visa waiver will also bring additional benefits to Irish exporters, who have struggled to get business clients from the key new markets of Russia, India and China to visit their premises in Ireland. Now, when such clients are in the UK they can be encouraged to hop across. It is a tourism initiative which will have collateral benefits for business and for Irish producers.

It is also encouraging to note a report in The Irish Times yesterday on a recent Fáilte Ireland survey, which points to much greater optimism by tourism operators in Ireland, with more than 50% believing that conditions for the industry will be better this year, compared with only 7% expressing such a belief at the same time in 2009.

Many of us in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party encouraged our Ministers to abolish the travel tax but we did not achieve it which was a pity. I support the measure and I commend it. I understand from media reports that Ryanair has submitted proposals to Government which would deliver up to 5 million additional passengers at Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports over a five year period.

It is important that the Minister of State keeps us updated on how this initiative is delivering. Sometimes in the past after Ministers and Ministers of State have come before the House they forget what they have said and we do not hear from them for another year. Everybody in Ireland grasped that the travel tax was preventing people from coming. As Senator Barrett stated in the Chamber, people on the continent can go from one country to another. This is the only European country where a travel tax had to be paid.