When the Minister talks about doubling the tourist numbers is he talking about tourists as presently defined — any person that stays 24 hours here or an emigrant coming back to play a football match, or will the Minister reclassify what a tourist is?

I will have to accept the definition as of now. I would have a narrower one. I would define a tourist as somebody who comes into the country and buys a bun. Twenty four hours is the usual period mentioned now in the international definition of a tourist. It is very important to get the idea across, an idea that has been put forward for many years by some leading friends of Ireland in Britain and the US, that we are in competition with sun holiday destinations for our own people wherever they are. Anybody who refuses to praise them for choosing their own native land rather than sun destinations, or refuses to enumerate them among tourists, is not doing a service to tourism in this country.

Does the Minister think it right that a dentist who works in this country but who also works four days a week in England and flies back and forward every weekend is classified as 52 tourists in the year?

The Deputy has already made that point.

The Liverpool soccer players came to Ireland for a night.

The Deputy has already switched from football to dentistry.

One is as valid as the other.

What statisticians have to do is deal with the vast numbers of people coming into the country. I do not care what the Deputy thinks up with regard to footballers or dentists. I am confident that, by and large, the statistics that we have with regard to tourists will stand up. They are the accepted international criteria and that is what we abide by.

Question No. 17 postponed. I am now calling Question No. 18.

The Minister depends for the success of tourism on emigration.

If a dentist pulls teeth in Brittany but spends his money on a holiday in Ireland, I would have no objections.

I call Question No. 18.

He will not be sleeping in the hotels unless there is investment in the next few weeks or years.

The hotels do not invest unless they have good potential for development. The Deputy can be sure of that.

The Taoiseach will be regarded as a tourist on his return.

Question No. 17 postponed.