I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £4,600 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1950, for a Grant-in-Aid of the Irish Tourist Board (No. 24 of 1939).
Committee on Finance. - Vote 14—Irish Tourist Board.
The purpose for which this money is required is to meet increased payments, consisting of a grant of £3,000 to the Irish Tourist Association. The original Estimate of £30,000 for the Tourist Board provided for a payment of £5,825 for the Tourist Association, but during the year it emerged that it was inadequate to meet the needs of the association, particularly the advertising campaign in America, and an additional sum of £3,000 was paid by the board to the Tourist Association.
Under the publicity scheme adopted by the O.E.E.C. for a joint campaign on behalf of a number of European countries to encourage Americans to visit Europe, a sum of £1,000 is necessary, and an additional sum of £600 to send a delegation to the United States under the E.C.A. auspices. The national tourist organisations were launched at the end of last year and they adopted a joint scheme of publicity in America. Under that scheme the total amount which this country is obliged to contribute is $15,000. It seems more appropriate that this money should be paid from the Department of Industry and Commerce rather than from the Tourist Board. The amount required for the expenses incurred up to 31st March is £1,000.
In addition, as the House is aware, a delegation consisting of four persons visited the United States recently under the E.C.A. auspices and the sum which it is necessary for the Department to meet amounts to £600. That delegation has returned and a report will shortly be made of the tour which they conducted and the various courses which the delegation undertook while in America.
I am not quite clear as to the statement made by the Parliamentary Secretary concerning expenditure upon tourist publicity in America. I understood him to say that the grant for the Tourist Association had been increased since the main Estimate was prepared by £3,000 for the purpose of enabling them to undertake additional publicity in America, that there was furthermore a scheme for expenditure upon general European publicity launced by O.E.E.C. which is being paid for jointly by the American authorities and by an association of tourist organisations in Europe, with a contribution from this country the cost of which will appear on the Industry and Commerce Vote. Am I right in assuming that there are, therefore, two publicity campaigns proceeding simultaneously?
There is one by the Tourist Association and one by O.E.E.C. To the European one our contribution is $15,000. Up to the 31st March the total amount required was £1,000. That is the scheme of publicity adopted by O.E.E.C. on a European basis, the cost of which will be jointly defrayed by all European countries in an effort to attract American tourists to Europe, and is distinct from the independent publicity undertaken by the Tourist Association.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary indicate generally the amount of money spent on publicity in America by the Tourist Association, the whole cost of which, I understand, is defrayed out of this Government grant?
I cannot say. The Tourist Association spent on publicity a total of £8,800. There was the original payment of £5,800, and an additional sum of £3,000.
The additional £3,000 was for publicity in America?
America and Europe.
I think the Parliamentary Secretary will agree that the results that could be secured by an expenditure of that amount of money are negligible.
It is additional to the other.
I do not think they will get many tourists as a result of expenditure on that scale.
I understand that fairly extensive advertising has been done by the Tourist Association on the Continent. I suppose it is only time will tell whether it will succeed in attracting tourists here, but I understand that considerable advertising has been done.
Vote put and agreed to.