REDMOND O'DONOGHUE, former chief executive of the Waterford Wedgwood Group, has been appointed chairman of Fáilte Ireland.

Mr O'Donoghue succeeds businesswoman Gillian Bowler, whose five-year term as the first chair of the authority has ended.

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen has also re-appointed four outgoing members of the tourism body: Aer Arann chairman Pádraig Ó Céidigh; Catherine Reilly of Brendan Nationwide Vacations; the Fitzpatrick Group hotelier Eithne Scott-Lennon and hotelier Brian Hughes. Mr O'Donoghue, who previously served as chairman of Bórd Fáilte, is from Waterford and was educated at the city's Waterpark College, UCD and at Harvard Business School.

A former Ford Motor company executive, he is chairman of Waterford Institute of Technology's governing council and chairman of Good Food Ireland. Mr O'Donoghue is a board member of Greencore. He remains on the board of both Waterford Crystal and Waterford Wedgwood and is on the national executive council of Ibec, the employers' group.

He said yesterday that the Irish tourism product "is in very good shape and a lot of investment has gone into it". With a marketing budget alone of €50 million, it was now a "much bigger and much more important market" than when he served as chairman of Fáilte Ireland's predecessor Bórd Fáilte from 1999 to 2001.

Last year, a record eight million tourists visited Ireland and spent almost €5 billion; domestic tourism was worth a further €1.6 billion to the economy. The sector employs almost 250,000 people.

Paying tribute to Ms Bowler, Mr Cullen said having "someone of her calibre and business track record in the early years of the new authority was critical in ensuring its launch and continuing success".