The State is turning the corner in its battle against foot-and-mouth, and there is reason for optimism, the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, said yesterday.
"I think we are turning the corner. I think we are winning this situation," he told a joint Oireachtas committee on tourism.
Dr McDaid said the Central Bank, "that most conservative of institutions", had recently forecast a 7 per cent growth in the economy this year. Other countries would envy such a prediction, he said.
The lifting of the ban on horse-racing on April 16th was also a "huge signal" that things were returning to normal. Dr McDaid said he hoped the State would be returning to an "internal normality" by May 1st.
The Minister supported a call from Ms Breda Moynihan-Cronin TD (Labour) for a special bank holiday to compensate for the sacrifices made during the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Chairing the joint committee meeting, Ms Moynihan-Cronin said this would lift spirits and give an opportunity to reschedule postponed events.
Dr McDaid said the deferred St Patrick's Day festival in Dublin could take place from May 18th to 20th, if the expert group sanctioned the dates next week.
Heritage sites were slowly reopening, and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands was running a programme of temporary fencing to separate deer from visitor centres in the national parks of Killarney, Glenveagh and the Wicklow Mountains.
Reopening sites at Glenda lough and Muckross to tourists was absolutely essential, said Ms Eileen O'Mara Walsh, chairwoman of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation. She said it would send out "tremendously valuable and positive signals" if they were reopened.
Dr McDaid's optimism was not echoed by tourism representatives at yesterday's meeting.
Tour operators had recorded booking cancellations ranging from 40 to 80 per cent, according to Ms O'Mara Walsh. "Cancellations are coming in at a faster rate than bookings."
Inquiries from overseas visitors had dramatically dropped, said Mr Joe Byrne, Bord Failte market operations manager. The agency's original estimate of £500 million losses in overseas tourism and £140 million in domestic tourism now looked conservative, he added.
Ms O'Mara Walsh said: "If we don't get it right in the next four weeks, we will have missed the boat for the entire season in the US."
The decision of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to go ahead with eight conferences has been welcomed by the Irish Hotels' Federation. They include gatherings by the INTO, TUI, Irish Nurses' Organisation, Irish Medical Organisation and the ICTU biennial conference in Bundoran in July.
Mr John Power, chief executive of the Irish Hotels' Federation, said the decision should send the right signals to the business community at home and abroad. "Events, conferences and meetings that pose no risk and that are being cancelled are sending out a very incorrect and damaging message to all sectors of business, tourism and the general public," he said.
