asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the specific proposals from the Tourism Task Force which will be implemented for the 1988 summer tourist season; the specific proposals from Bord Fáilte which will be implemented for the 1988 summer tourist season; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

In addition to their ongoing product development, promotion and marketing activities, Bord Fáilte will in 1988 be implementing the following specific recommendations of the Tourism Task Force:

The national write and invite campaign which is now under way;

A new campaign, also under way, directed at the special interest holiday segments of our main markets making extensive use of specialist tour operators and journalists in special interest magazines and publications. Bord Fáilte have targeted angling, golf, equestrian, cycling, walking, religious, cultural-heritage-language, incentiveconference, cruising and senior citizens;

New 1988 campaigns in north America and Australia-Japan concentrating on back-track traffic from Europe and Britain;

Special campaigns already underway in continental Europe and Britain;

A special entrepreneurial tourism fund to assist innovative tourism projects designed to increase visitor traffic in 1988;

A conference ambassador scheme aimed at attracting increased international conference business.

I am confident that these initiatives will lead to a substantial increase in overseas visitors in 1988.

The write and invite campaign was quite imaginative and innovative but one would have thought that the object of the exercise would have been to get all the leaflets out within three or four days to everybody in the country so that presently people would be aware of the campaign. Is the Minister aware that in large areas of the country people have still not received their brochure and therefore they have not sent it abroad and they will have forgotten about the campaign if things do not speed up. What has gone wrong?

Nothing has gone wrong. Actually getting out the literature was a mammoth task which has been done systematically and the whole country will be covered. It will be our responsibility and duty to see to it that people will not forget what it is all about.

Did Bord Fáilte have a target of a specific number of days within which this was supposed to happen? As I understand it that target has been hugely overshot.

No, I think they are working to a plan.