Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the tourism figures issued this morning from the Central Statistics Office. There were 7 million visitors to Ireland in 2013, an increase of 7.2% on the figure for the previous year. There were 1.2 million visitors from North America, an increase of 13.9%. These exceeded the record figures in 2008. I am glad to relate all of the main overseas markets grew last year. The number of visitors from Great Britain increased by 5.6%, while the number from mainland Europe increased by 4.9%. The number of visitors from long-haul destinations increased by 15%. To compare the last three months-----