How deep is the pool?

What's the weather like? The questions are as varied and eclectic as the people themselves who queue at the counter to book a holiday.

Do I need to bring a passport? What's the night-life like? Tickets are stamped, checked, put in a white envelope and handed over to the waiting couple. There's a growing sense of excitement. They say "thank you" and depart.

The next customer wants to know what the food is like, if he should take euros and how far the hotel is from the beach. All day long Sinead Shanny, leisure travel manager at Wallace Travel Group in Finglas, north-west Dublin, fields questions and makes bookings to near and far-flung destinations.

Mojacar in Spain is a popular destination with families at the moment, she explains. Thailand, Egypt and Florida are also popular for the long-haul holidays, when customers want to know about vaccinations, money and restaurants.

Before she steps away from the counter to be interviewed, Shanny scrolls down the screen, checking flight codes and dates of availability to Orlando for another would-be holidaymaker. At any one point during the day she may have to juggle up to five different holiday queries at a time. "You need to be good at figures, pay attention to details. That's very important - much more important than being good with people," she says.

"It's very easy to overlook something and it could cost the company thousands of pounds to get out of it. And you need to be able to work under pressure, you need good communication skills and you have to keep cool under pressure." Irish people are "only starting to get adventurous", she says. Although there are still those who only want to go to Santa Ponsa, more and more are going further afield, she says.

Shanny herself went into the travel business because she wanted to see the world. At school, she says, her ambition was to get a job in the travel-business area, and work in a job such as air hostessing.

"I loved the idea of travelling and always dealing with people, that's what appealed to me."

She's been working at Wallace Travel Group for four years and although she's exhausted at the close of business each day, she still loves it.

"I'll be here for the rest of my life," she laughs. "I wouldn't change it. There's so much going on. Although I'm here in Finglas, you really feel part of the whole world." There's a sense of paths stretching around the world crossing and criss-crossing again.

She went to Nobber National School in Co Meath and then on to Loreto Convent in Navan for second level. After her Leaving Cert, she went to France for three months to work, leaving two days after her exams.

She worked in Houlgate in Normandy. "It was a bit hard at first, then I didn't want to come home. It knocked the edges off me." After the summer she came home and went to Colaiste Ide in Finglas, where she did a one-year PLC course, studying hotel catering and tourism. She decided to spend another year, this time studying the travel business.

"I did the IATA-UFFTA exams." (See Factfile, below.) "The year was very, very hard. I dossed in first year but I had settled down when I started the travel agency course.

We did air fares, ticketing and geography - in those exams you had to get 75 per cent to pass. The papers are corrected in Geneva - it's an international exam, you couldn't bluff your way through."

Shanny passed and went to Wallace to do work experience for two weeks. While she was there she was offered a job.

Although she is a manager now, she still sits at the counter and sells holidays. She likes that, she says. "I want to be involved in the selling. You need to be outgoing and to be able to sell, you need to be a salesperson. There are a lot of computers too and you find things easier to learn if you are okay with computers.

"It all comes with experience," she advises.

The perks of the job are great as well, she says. This year Shanny has been to Rome and Lanzarote and she travels to New York next week. "You get loads of cheap holidays and discounts.

"I love the buzz. You're dealing with business people, then families who've saved for years. It's very busy all the time." There's no more time to talk. The phone rings and Shanny has to deal with another customer.