Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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187. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the introduction of any direct flights between Ireland and Silicon Valley; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51262/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Aer Lingus announced last July that it will commence direct services from Dublin to San Francisco on 2nd April 2014. A direct service to the West Coast of the US was identified as a key action point in the Government's Action Plan for Jobs and I am delighted that this need is being fulfilled by an Irish airline. The IDA has been advocating the return of the service ever since it was discontinued by Aer Lingus at the height of the recession back in 2009 and the Minister has raised the matter regularly in his meetings with Aer Lingus.

The importance of this route is demonstrated by the fact that it is estimated that over 40% of Ireland’s total foreign direct investment comes from Silicon Valley based companies alone. Many Silicon Valley companies such as Intel, PayPal, eBay, Facebook, Google and Apple have their European Headquarters in Ireland. The direct air access being provided by Aer Lingus will help to sustain this investment and attract further investment.

Enhanced air access to key business and tourism markets around the world has been a key element of this Government's policy and the success of that policy to date is evidenced by the significant increased capacity that has been made available on transatlantic routes - over 26% in summer 2013 season and a number of other new services to the US and Canada have already been announced for next year.  The zero rate travel tax initiative in Budget 2013 will come into effect from April 2014 and is part of a process aimed at generating new airline routes into Ireland. There has been a positive response to the initiative from airlines so far with Ryanair and Aer Lingus Regional both announcing details of new routes and increased services from Dublin, Shannon, Cork and Knock. The elimination of the air travel tax coupled with the decision to maintain the tourism and hospitality VAT rate at 6% is a clear indication of the Governments support for air travel and Irish tourism generally.

Tourism Ireland works closely with carriers, airports and agencies to make the case for the introduction of new services or extended capacity. The DAA also has attractive incentive packages available for the introduction of new routes. In Summer 2013, total available seat capacity was +3% higher thaan Summer 2012. I will launch Tourism Ireland's Marketing Plans for 2014 to the industry on Monday 2nd December and I expect that cooperative promotion will continue to be a major focus of their programme in the year ahead.