Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to discuss the issue I have raised today, the issue of visitor access from China and the visa regime for Chinese visitors.

Over the past few years, great emphasis has been put by the current Government and the previous government on improving relations with China and on the effort to encourage more Chinese people to visit this country as tourists, students or to make business investments. I know some efforts have been made to change the visa regime, which has for a long time caused difficulties for Chinese people who wanted to visit Ireland.

Unfortunately, better systems in the United Kingdom have the consequence of putting people off from coming here, reducing investment in the country and tourist numbers. Efforts have been made to reform the system and there has been much bilateral contact between Ireland and China, to which the Cathaoirleach recently led a delegation, of which my colleague, Deputy Dara Calleary, was part. Some work has been done to change some of the more restrictive systems and make sure Chinese visitors to the United Kingdom are able to travel onwards to Ireland without applying separately. However, there is still huge room for improvement. Up to 2 million Chinese tourists visit Europe each year, of whom only 10,000 come to Ireland. Given the attractiveness of this country, its sites and the rave reviews, it is a shame more visitors do not come here. In a poll in The China PostChinese visitors who had visited Ireland rated it the most attractive destination in Europe.

I understand there are difficulties with the visa regime which put people off. Chinese nationals living in Ireland have difficulty in arranging for family members to visit them. I was recently contacted by a Chinese businesswoman who runs a business in Drumcondra. She has been here for 11 years and has an Irish passport, as do her husband and children, yet she has difficulty in arranging for her parents to visit her and see their grandchildren. They are retired and have sufficient resources to travel anywhere in the world and would like to see their grandchildren in Ireland. However, every time they wish to do so, they must go through a cumbersome visa application process involving many documents and delays while waiting for an answer. Just because one has been approved once does not mean the same will happen the second time. This causes difficulties in booking flights, making arrangements and knowing the dates they will be in Ireland.

I have written to the Minister for Justice and Equality and the immigration office about the case. I know the Minister of State cannot comment on individual cases, but I wanted to highlight the general difficulty because Ireland has a huge Chinese population. We need to look at the arrangements made in other countries to make it easier for family visitors to come to visit family members and children who live in Ireland or for people to come as tourists and spend money here. People applying for visas are well able to look after themselves and will make a major economic contribution here for a few weeks. We should be doing everything possible to encourage them to come here. We need a robust immigration system, but it appears to be overly cumbersome, which is a shame. I ask the Minister of State to impress on the Minister the need to address these points.