Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 328: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if his Department has plans to undertake a survey of overseas visitors to Ireland in order to establish the effectiveness of road signage and their attitudes towards them on a practical level. [26558/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The provision of signage is an operational matter for the National Roads Authority or NRA, under the aegis of the Department of Transport, in relation to national roads, and for local authorities in relation to non-national (i.e. regional and local) roads.

Having said that, signposting is, of course, important in helping many visitors to make the most of their trips to Ireland. The report of the Tourism Policy Review Group, New Horizons for Irish Tourism: An Agenda for Action, published in September 2003, identified addressing and upgrading of signage and prioritising "major tourism routes in the National and Regional Road Signposting programmes..." (New Horizons p94), as a key action.

The Tourism Policy Implementation Group, which was set up by my predecessor to monitor implementation of the Action Plan contained in the New Horizons Report, met the senior management of both the Department of Transport and the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, with whom it discussed signage amongst other things.

My Department does not carry out visitor surveys. This is the role of Fáilte Ireland. Fáilte Ireland's 'Survey of Overseas Travelers' monitors the attitudes of overseas visitors throughout the year and the results are publicly available on www.failteireland.ie. In 2006, 5% of overall visitors and 12% of visitors using a car while in Ireland said that signposting in Ireland was unsatisfactory or in need of improvement.

Following consultation with my Department and Fáilte Ireland, the National Roads Authority (NRA), this year published a "Policy on the Provision of Tourist and Leisure Signage on National Roads". I am advised that a Programme to upgrade tourist and leisure signage on national roads is being implemented, in line with the Programme set out for the upgrading of directional signage on national roads. This re-signage scheme includes both directional signs and white-on-brown tourist signs. I understand that appropriate consultations are taking place with Fáilte Ireland on the provision of tourist signage as part of this scheme, on a route-by-route basis.

Following completion of the programme noted above, I would hope that future traveller surveys will reflect increasing visitor satisfaction.