Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)

Like previous speakers, I congratulate Senator Norris on winning the nomination and I wish all seven candidates the best of luck. The Fine Gael candidate undoubtedly would be delighted, were Senator O'Sullivan able to see his way to supporting him this time. It obviously will be an intriguing election and the printing industry, which has been going through a tough time, certainly will benefit significantly therefrom and certainly will welcome the added boost to business. I am delighted Senator Leyden has been highly positive in recent days and support his call to the Leader to establish whether a forum could operate in the Seanad in which positive ideas could be fed to the economic ministries with particular reference to job creation. I believe such an initiative would be welcomed by all Members.

On a further positive note, all Members must welcome the recently published CSO figures for tourism traffic in Ireland this year. In the period from May to July 2011, the total number of overseas trips to Ireland increased by 9.4%, to just under 2 million, which was an overall increase of 167,000 when compared with the period from May to July 2010. Moreover, for the first seven months of 2011, trips to Ireland increased by 11.8% and there were 3,696,000 overseas visitors to Ireland. The numbers of visitors from mainland Europe and North America increased by 13.7% and 13%, respectively, which is highly significant and is greatly to be welcomed. The reduction in the level of VAT applied to a range of labour-intensive tourism services certainly has been of significant benefit and the introduction of a tourist visa waiver scheme for people in possession of a valid United Kingdom visa obviously has made it much easier for people to access our country.