I propose to take Questions Nos. 22 and 31 together.
St. Patrick's Day has traditionally signalled the start of the tourism season in Ireland. With the Taoiseach, Ministers and Ministers of State visiting our key tourism markets – including Britain, North America, continental Europe, Canada and Australia – this year's programme of official overseas engagements for St. Patrick's Day presented a unique opportunity to ensure that Ireland was presented in a consistent manner as a top class tourist destination to a wide and receptive audience.
To this end, my Department worked closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Tourism Ireland Limited to maximise the tourism promotional potential of these visits by making available to all Ministers travelling abroad special tourism briefing and speaking points which were customised for individual major markets. In addition, direct dialogue between Tourism Ireland's market offices and the diplomatic missions at an early stage of the planning process ensured that tourism interests were accommodated in so far as possible within the official programmes being arranged by the missions.
The following examples illustrate how these visits were utilised for tourism promotion: in Australia, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Dempsey, participated at a highly successful lunch event in Sydney organised by Tourism Ireland for the tourism trade interests in that market; in Seoul, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Tom Parlon, launched Tourism Ireland's website, which is now available in Korean for the first time ever; in South Africa, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, spoke at a tourism breakfast organised by Tourism Ireland for the tourism trade in that market; and in the US, I understand that Ministers travelling to this vital tourism market utilised the comprehensive briefing and speaking points provided by my Department at every available opportunity. In the current uncertainty in the international tourism market, particularly the US market, these visits were particularly useful in getting the message out that Ireland is open for tourism business and that the welcome is as warm as ever.