If tourism is running away with itself in the major centres around the State, Ms Eileen O'Mara Walsh has the answer. In an approach which mirrors that of IDA Ireland in its new regional industrial policy, Ms O'Mara Walsh, chairwoman of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, wants selective investment in tourism in places such as Carlow and Kilkenny, Roscomman and Leitrim, most of Mayo and east Clare. Anywhere, really, that's off the beaten track.

"We recognise that the challenge that lies ahead is to manage our success. That is why the major objective we have in the overall industry is spatial spread, spreading the business outwards and extending the season," she says.

The plan to fund that approach does not rest easy with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) Investment Priorities for 2000-2006, which argues that investment should be reduced in product development and marketing.

"The main thrust [of the ESRI report] we think is fine, but we would be at odds with them on their view that industry needs no supports," she says.

The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) represents commercial tourism interests and its members include Bord Failte and CERT. It acts as a lobby group for the industry, and is representative of tourism as a Social Partner.

The confederation is saying to the Government that it is pay-back time for the revenues generated by tourism. Ms O'Mara Walsh says that of last year's £2.5 billion (€3.17 billion) revenue generated from tourism, over half went to the Exchequer.

Last week, the ITIC presented a £1 billion investment plan to the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, outlining its proposals. The confederation is looking for a £20 million marketing programme to promote "Ireland Inc". "Bord Failte has very little, what we call, above-the-line funds, very few discretionary funds to spend on advertising," she says.

Future EU funding should be used to develop "clusters of attractions" such as accommodation with leisure facilities, heritage attractions and activity centres.

"You need a number of reasons to go and stay in a place."

She wants about £100 million to be spent on training and reskilling, focusing on the over-35s and married women. "The industry is crying out for more staff. Because we are getting close to a full employment situation, we have to be more creative about bringing more people into the workforce."

On the controversial "tourist levy" which will charge tourists to leave the country by imposing an across-the-board £4 per person departure tax, she is philosophical.

The proposed tax is £1 less than the current departure tax imposed on Irish nationals, and the Government says it is necessary to finance its contribution to tourism promotion. "Nobody likes to tax their customers but we would reluctantly go along with it if the Exchequer does not come up with any other way of providing marketing funds."

Originally from Limerick, she describes herself as a socialist in the European centralist tradition. She is a long-time Labour Party supporter, following in the steps of her mother, Joan Follwell, who campaigned for the former minister for health, Dr Noel Browne.

Her family was involved in the O'Mara Bacon business in Limerick. Her grand-uncle, Jim O'Mara, a member of the first Dail, brought workers over from Poland to apply the curing skills which created the famous "Limerick Ham". She is most proud of the O'Mara Opera Company, begun by her grandfather, Joseph O'Mara, a well-known tenor. "Hence my chairmanship of Opera Ireland, I am paying my dues."

Her favoured millennium project is for the Government to buy the Gaiety Theatre and convert it into the national opera house. "We are the only capital city in Europe without an opera house, and that opera house could double up for the panto, for dance," she says.

Her father managed the Dublin Globe Theatre Company after the family moved to the capital when she was aged 12 and she remembers a stream of visitors from artistic and literary circles and paper bags "with a half a dozen stout in them".

Her upbringing hardly prepared her for running a travel agency, being a former chairwoman of Enterprise Ireland's precursor, Forbairt, and being a director of Great Southern Hotels. She believes the historic hotel group, which Aer Lingus, its present owners, wants to divest itself of, should keep its group identity.

Her first job was in the hotel industry. When she finished school at Muckross, she "rebelled" against the notion of going to college. "I decided I was going to go out and earn my living. My other two sisters were already doing so."

She went to London to train in the hotel industry, starting as a chambermaid in the Grosvenor Hotel, and later moved to Paris to work for a women's organisation. "I came back to Ireland and worked for the French Embassy among other things in the early 1960s," she says.

Later she started her own business, O'Mara Travel, which is 21 years old this year and has operated as a niche player in the market, doing a lot of "inbound tourism". "We are the market leaders for tourist traffic from Spain and Portugal." O'Mara Travel is also the general sales agent for Club Mediterranee in the Republic. She is also a director of Heritage Island, which promotes the State's heritage attractions. "People are looking for a learning experience in holidays as much as a vegging out experience. People want to experience more of the lifestyle or the history or the culture of the place they are visiting," she says.