Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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79. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has a strategy in place for dealing with the consequences of Brexit on overseas tourism to Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22481/16]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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​Great Britain has consistently been Ireland's most important source market for visits to Ireland, with just over 3.5 million visits in 2015. This represented 41% of our total overseas visits.

CSO figures for the period January to May 2016 show further strong performance from the GB market with growth in visit numbers of over 15.7%, when compared with the same period of 2015. 

Tourism Ireland, the agency responsible for marketing the island of Ireland as a visitor destination in overseas markets, has an extensive marketing programme in place for the second half of 2016 which is under way in 23 markets including Great Britain. 

In the longer term, the Programme for Government commits to implementing the policy objectives in the Tourism Policy Statement "People, Place and Policy – Growing Tourism to 2025" and achieving the targets for Irish tourism contained therein. The UK vote does not change this. 

While the GB market contributed 41% of overseas visits in 2015, the share of overseas visitor revenue from British visitors is approximately 23%. There is a commitment in the Tourism Policy Statement to prioritising tourism marketing efforts towards those markets providing higher revenue returns.

In the short term, there are no changes to how people can travel between Ireland and the UK and the Government will be doing its upmost in future discussions to maintain the Common Travel Area. In terms of the relative reduction in the value of sterling and the implications for the cost of a holiday here, this has similar implications for all eurozone countries, many of which compete with us for these tourists.

The Great Britain market will remain of significant importance to Irish tourism in the future and I believe that Ireland's excellent tourism offering  will ensure that we continue to perform strongly.  Tourism Ireland is closely monitoring the situation and is due to meet with tourism industry representatives later this week to plan ahead in this new market environment. In the longer term, we will work closely with other Departments and our agencies and respond to any changes as necessary. I remain confident  however, that our overall long term ambitious targets for Irish tourism will be achieved.