The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) publishes a five-year plan for the industry next Monday.

According to ITIC's chairman, Mr David Bunworth, it is principally about two things: the future funding of the tourist industry and the structures which will underpin it in the next century. Both are in need of urgent revision.

The Operational Programme for Tourism 1994-1999 was funded by the Irish taxpayer, the industry and, most crucially, the European Union. The EU support for tourism as for much else will be drastically scaled down in 1999. ITIC's concern is that the financial resources needed to promote Irish tourism must be replaced. The report makes the case that the State has done well out of tourism and it is now payback time.

It is worth looking at just how well the tourist industry has performed over the past 10 years. In 1988, total foreign exchange earnings from tourism were £841 million. This year, they will surpass £2.25 billion. The ITIC report emphasises that in economic terms the industry is almost entirely native-grown: there is no need to import expensive materials apart from the odd bottle of French wine.

The report also makes another important case: the fact that tourism makes economic life viable in parts of the country where there is little or no indigenous industry. Even farming, also facing cuts in financial support from Brussels, is adding tourism activities to its repertoire of economic activities.

Not everything in the tourist garden is rosy, Mr Bunworth warns. Ireland is now attracting six million visitors annually. The ITIC report says this would be all very well if, somehow, a magic wand could be waved and our tourists were ordered to arrive evenly throughout the year and into Westmeath and Longford.

Unfortunately, the report says, visitors are piling into Dublin on short-stay breaks and are putting the enjoyment of Killarney and the Ring of Kerry at risk through the sheer volume of people consuming these prime tourism products at the same time.

Mr Bunworth says the danger is very real that the quality of these products will be undermined. A conscious effort will have to be made to protect them by marketing other areas. A little positive discrimination in favour of the less-visited areas is not ruled out.

Mr Bunworth, who is also marketing director of Aer Lingus, agrees that the low fares into Dublin have given it a major advantage. However, he adds, from North America, Shannon has every advantage and a little bit more than Dublin has. Aer Lingus codeshares with AB Shannon, a British carrier, to encourage business between Shannon and Britain. On routes from Europe, there is a substantial volume of charter flights into Shannon, but they are concentrated in the summer months and virtually always at weekends.

Mr Bunworth says an airline like Ryanair might be the one to give Shannon a year-round, low-cost service to a number of European cities.

The ITIC report says tourism's role as a contributor should be recognised and rewarded. The previous Minister for Tourism, Mr McCreevy, was inclined to emphasise the obligation on the industry to fend for itself. The present Minister, Dr McDaid, has been less dogmatic on this point. Mr Bunworth says Dr McDaid and his Department have been well briefed by ITIC and others on the need to support the development of the industry.

The report devotes a good deal of space to the issue of the long-term building of the Ireland brand name. ITIC points to the emergence of markets such as Scotland which offer a product very similar to Ireland's. Money to support Ireland's brand image internationally must be found and it is to the State that ITIC is looking.

The other principal concern of the report is the structures of the tourist industry post1999. The report points to a certain fragmentation in the marketing of the product. Even relatively small areas of the State now have their own marketing bodies. Cork and Limerick, for example, have attempted to hijack the lucrative Icelandic trade which comes to shop and party - in Dublin towards the end of the year.

The ITIC report urges a co-ordinated approach to selling the brand, even to the point where the airlines and the car ferries would present a similar image to their different customers.

Mr Bunworth is not saying, but it seems to be a consensus among his members, that there are too many bodies involved in the industry. And they are not impressed that Bord Failte is heading into the 1998 season without a director-general, an international marketing director or a director for Europe. Dr McDaid describes this as an "imaginary vacuum" but that is not how most ITIC members see it.

Mr Bunworth says ITIC has made it very clear to the chairman of Bord Failte, Mr Mark Mortell, that it wants to see a director-general in place sooner rather than later. "Mr Mortell fully understands our concerns."

The ITIC report was first mooted for January. Does the delay suggest some divergence of opinion in ITIC? Mr Bunworth says not.

"We wanted to have a thorough, radical report, well researched. If we wanted a `motherhood' report I could have written it myself I know all the buzz words".