Complaints from tourists visiting Ireland were mainly about high prices and litter, a Dail committee was told yesterday.
The secretary general of the Department of Tourism and Trade, Ms Margaret Hayes, said: "There is a general perception coming through surveys that people are beginning to see Ireland as possibly a growingly expensive destination."
The chairman of the Dail committee of Public Accounts, Mr Jim Mitchell (FG), said that Irish people felt the same.
"To eat out in Dublin is extremely expensive. To bring your family out to eat once a year would break you. And the price of the pint is going up every few months."
Asked by Mr Mitchell if there was anything the Department could do, Ms Hayes said it was trying continually to make the industry aware that prices would have to be competitive.
She added that there was ongoing comment about the volume of litter to be found in Ireland.
"It is one of the things which people express surprise at, because we are associated in the international mind with an environment which is clean and well cared for. People do find the level of litter a bit disconcerting."
Mr Mitchell said that last year's litter act had no impact in Dublin.
"The situation seems to be getting worse rather than better. Dublin is now dirty Dublin more than it ever was before. It is a filthy place."
Ms Hayes said that her Department had regular contact with the Department of the Environment and the local authorities, as well as regional tourism organisations. "I think, overall, it is a cultural thing. As a people we do not seem to realise the need to control disposal patterns."
Mr Mitchell said the canals were filthy, while rivers like the Dodder and the Liffey were in the same state.
These were the responsibility of the public authorities, and he wondered if it was time to hand over their upkeep to a private contract operation whereby people could be sacked if they did not perform.
Ms Hayes said she believed that the local authorities were trying harder. "You see more dustbins around. You see more cleansing on Dublin's inner-city streets, for example.
"It does strike me that perhaps more cleaning through the night might be more effective than people trying to clean the streets in the middle of the day."
