asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport if further progress has been made with any airline who is interested in flying scheduled flights from Canada or Australia directly into Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Flights from Canada and Australia.
18.
There are no direct scheduled air services between Ireland and Australia or Canada.
I have no proposal from any airline for the inauguration of scheduled air services between Ireland and Australia at the present time. As I informed the House last December in reply to a previous question, I am very keen to develop tourism traffic from Australia to Ireland and in this regard I announced a major new fares initiative to boost tourism traffic from that country. Under this new arrangement, Australian visitors to London are able to travel on to Dublin at no extra cost. All the indications are that this initiative will result in a substantial increase in Australian visitors to Ireland this year.
As regards services from Canada, I should inform the Deputy that negotiations on a new bilateral air services agreement between Ireland and Canada have taken place in Dublin. These discussions, which will be resumed shortly, are intended to facilitate the restoration of direct links between Ireland and Canada.
I am happy to inform the Deputy, however, that notwithstanding the absence of direct scheduled links between Ireland and Canada a substantial increase is expected in the level of charter traffic from Canada to Ireland this summer.