Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

New York city has a bed levy and taxis pay a small levy. The money raised goes into promoting New York, promoting the city, paying for the convention centre and for all of those types of activities. I am not sure if Ireland is ready for a levy yet. The tourism industry is on the floor so it is not ready for it. The principle is good and the same could apply to food and Bord Bia. Those who benefit from the cost of Government agencies and marketing programmes should make a specific contribution to such costs.

Statistics prove that costs and value perceptions have damaged Irish tourism, particularly for British people and with the movement in exchange rates for sterling versus the euro. It has left a bad taste in people's mouths. Value perceptions are improving, particularly in Europe and Britain. Improvements take time because people must come to Ireland, return home to Britain and then tell people that they were on holidays here and found it not to be expensive. It takes a long time to recover once a country has priced itself out of the market and got a reputation for being too expensive. An improvement is only happening now.

I often try to derange my agency staff and officials by telling them that I am a marketing sceptic and I am. Marketing has been interesting over the past while. We have marketed more to the UK than in the past but the number of visitors from the UK has fallen. We put less money into marketing for France and Germany but the number of visitors from both countries has increased. On that basis perhaps I could apply the crude principle that the best way to increase visitor numbers is to reduce marketing. Of course the issue is not that simple and there are many factors at play. The major factor that appears to be at play in Britain is the weakness of its economy. We often do not realise that, even though Britain has much lower unemployment, its standard of living is flat and falling. Fewer British people travel abroad now than in 2001 or more British people travelled abroad ten years ago and that is a big change.

Another problem is that Ireland is not considered to be different from Scotland, the west country and places that are a lot easier to reach. Those places have stolen our lunch in a lot of ways. Ms Vivienne Jupp has led a group that has carried out a lot of research on the issue and provided a detailed report on how we can recover our market share. We can achieve it largely by improving value perceptions. Of course improving value is necessary because one cannot improve perceptions without improving the reality. We also need to target particular groups such as social energisers, great escapers and so on. We must pick particular segments of the British market rather than adopting a broad brush approach which is what we do now. Research shows that British people often view Ireland as a party destination but when they want somewhere with great walks, or to spend time with their families and see beautiful scenery, they score Scotland, Wales and the west country and Lake district of England much higher than Ireland. It should not be that way because Ireland is just as good.

Senator Noone made a valid point about the spend per visitor to Australia and I agree with her. The only thing that might throw her figures slightly is that sometimes the spend includes the airfare. An airfare to Australia will always be much higher than one from London or Liverpool.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh mentioned that The Gathering should be an all-Ireland project. I wish it was more of an all-Ireland project but the Northern Ireland authorities decided that it wanted to concentrate on Northern Ireland 2012 and other events. Individual events and local authorities have become part of The Gathering. Even though it is not officially an all-Ireland event anything happening in the North can be included on the website and in the initiatives if they want to be.

I am happy to assist Senator Keane with her suggestion of an energy conference. Both Senators Norris and Quinn raised the issue of the property tax. It is beyond my remit but their points were well made. Perhaps there is a case for allowing a reduction in property tax for heritage properties who open to the public for a sufficient period. The tax code already contains a provision.

Senator Colm Burke mentioned the alumni networks in the US and I agree with his comment that our universities are not doing enough. We saw the strength of the Notre Dame University network and how much it gains from it. A big difference between Ireland and America is that getting into a university is different in America. Often one can gain entry not because one got a lot of points in the CAO but because one comes from a legacy family. Obviously being in an alumn is much more important when one can buy access to a university. I would not like Ireland to adopt the same process and we need to draw a line under it.

The Senator also mentioned the GAA, which is an amazing organisation. When I travel abroad I like to meet the GAA organisations on the ground. They have provided a home for so many Irish people who have emigrated, particularly young people. Often people who had nothing to do with the GAA in Ireland join the organisation when they go overseas. I always tell this story, when one travels to the United Arab Emirates there is an embassy in Abu Dhabi and Tourism Ireland has an office in Dubai. However, there is a GAA club in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al-Khaimah, and Al Ain and every emirate has a GAA club. The GAA has an amazing network in the region.

Senator Mooney asked about the sentiments for The Gathering so far. It is early days and I do not have the airport or visitor statistics yet. I should have some statistics in the next few weeks so I will have a better idea then. The tourism industry is very positive about the initiative. The fact that 2,800 gatherings have been scheduled is positive.

Senator Conway suggested that we repeat The Gathering in four years time. We should but let us see if it works first.