asked the Minister for Communications if a major international consultancy study of the whole Irish tourism sector is in progress; and if so, when he expects to have the report.

In August, 1986 the previous Government engaged Craig Gardner/Price Waterhouse, the international consultants, to examine the effectiveness of all directly tourism-related public expenditure. The work of this consultancy is still in progress and I hope to have their report submitted to me by mid-May.

Will the Minister indicate if any interim reports have been issued by this consultancy firm? How much does the Minister expect the report to cost? Is the Minister in a position to outline to me the terms of reference laid down for this consultancy?

The cost will be about £260,000. There have not been interim reports and the terms of reference are geared to the area of tourism-related public expenditure and the value to be got from that.

I understand that the company will be reporting within 12 months but is the Minister in a position to say if there was a public competition for the preparation of the report? If so, how many companies applied?

I do not have any knowledge of any competition having taken place in the period of office of my predecessor.

Is it the Minister's intention to publish the report when it is received? Is it his intention, when the report is received, to publish a statement on behalf of the Government indicating their conclusions on the recommendations made to them?

I can assure the Deputy that not merely will there be a comment from the Government on it but there will be a commitment to action where the policy indicated by the report seems to improve our tourist industry.

Will the Minister agree that it is unusual to give out a consultancy of this type without any public competition? The Minister seemed to confirm that there was not a public competition and I should like to know if this consultancy was given by the Government or if it was allocated by a Minister. Will the Minister asgree that there is no need for a report of this nature when everything that needs to be said or written about the Irish tourist industry has been written? Remarks, like those made earlier by Deputy O'Malley, on transport and related matters are well known——

And often inaccurate, and the Deputy is aware of that.

Deputy Mitchell was inaccurate for a long time.

Deputy Harney is tending to make a speech.

I should like to remind the Deputy that we brought down air fares to their lowest point ever.

Was there a need for this report? Will the Minister wait for the report before he takes action in relation to tourism?

I will deal with the latter part of the Deputy's question because there always appears to be a nice little sting in the tail of her questions. I would like to tell the Deputy that I will not be waiting for that report before taking action. I will not be idle in the meantime. The White Paper on Tourism gave insights and, in fact, suggested this consultancy. I read the White Paper when it was issued.

Deputy Harney did not read the White Paper.

I am chauvinistic enough to think that the Fianna Fáil document on tourism was sufficient for the development of tourism here in the next few years but I will take the White Paper and the consultants' report very seriously.

In view of the concern expressed by the Deputy about the cost and the number of companies asked to tender for the consultancy, will the Minister ensure that the report presented will be made public? I was the Minister involved in commissioning that consultancy and I can tell the House that there is not anything hidden in regard to this. I am sure all the information is on the Minister's file or that his file contains information concerning the number of people who applied for the consultancy.

I know Deputy Kavanagh long enough to know that he would not do anything surreptitious.