Eamonn Coghlan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Having worked in Fáilte Ireland for many years as a younger man, I know conference venues change from city to city around the United States and around Europe. Ireland was lucky to host the Web Summit for three or four years. Digging deeper into Senator Leyden’s comments about its contribution of €140 million to the economy and the 30,000 guests who come to Ireland, it must be election time because his numbers are way off. I have heard of a contribution of €70 million or €100 million. If there are 30,000 people they are contributing almost €5,000 per person to the economy, yet we hear that almost half the people who attend the conference are not from overseas.

Tourism numbers are up and the conference centres have bookings all the way through to 2017 and beyond. It will not make a difference to tourism numbers. There are over 300,000 people attending the National Ploughing Championships as we speak. That makes an enormous contribution to Ireland, and to rural Ireland in particular. I spent the past three weeks travelling around rural Ireland working on a television series and found that the attitude in rural Ireland has changed dramatically for the better in recent years. Restaurants are booming, businesses seem to be booming. Ireland is back on its feet and we will see much better things in the near future.