Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to be associated with the good wishes to our friend and colleague, Bernard Hand on his retirement. He is an avid GAA fan like myself and unfortunately I must admit that I did not take his good advice on all occasions. It was always a pleasure to listen to him. I also join in the good wishes for Senator Norris tomorrow. I wish him well. He is back to his brilliant best from a recent illness and I wish him continued good health, as I do Bernard Hand, to whom I also wish long life and happiness in his retirement.

I refer to the record number of visitors and overall trips to our country this year. It is up 12.8%, while our August to October visitors have increased by 14%, which is significant. Our European visitors are up 14.1% while those from the United States are up 13.3%, which will hopefully continue. Our visitors from Great Britain have increased by 11.3%. From January to October, almost 3 million have visited our country from there. Our long-haul overseas visitors from China and Japan and such far-off places number 461,000. I did not realise that. These are CSO figures issued this week.

I call on the Leader for a debate. While these visitor numbers are most welcome, I would like to think that all parts of our country have gained by them. I would like to see that the north west, the north east, the south west and the south east have gained accordingly and that tourists are moving out from the capital city to the countryside.