Revenue from tourism in Ireland is down £200 million as a result of foot-and-mouth disease, a meeting of the NorthSouth Ministerial Tourism Council heard in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, yesterday.
The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, detailing the losses to the industry to date, said there would be no question of compensation as it would be "logistically impossible".
Meanwhile, the cancellation of a Legal Aid Board conference scheduled for next weekend in Co Kerry has been described as "a huge blow" and a sign that there is lack of cohesion within Government Departments on issues to do with tourism and foot-and-mouth.
The cancellation of the twoday, 250-delegate conference which was conveyed to the Brandon Hotel in Tralee at the end of last week, was within two weeks of its date, April 6th and 7th.
Guidelines from the Department of Agriculture released on March 16th led hotel manager Mr Peter McDermott to believe there would be no more cancellations of low-risk conferences, especially by other Government Departments and bodies.
"Government-sponsored bodies should be taking the lead," and allow parts of Ireland free of foot-and-mouth to return to some degree of normality in line with their own advice, Mr McDermott said.
While the North-South ministerial meeting had been scheduled prior to the outbreaks, Dr McDaid, Sir Reg Empey, Minister for Enterprise Trade and Investment, and Dr Sean Farren, Minister for Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment, announced plans to launch a joint US promotional campaign to counteract the misconception that Ireland was in the same grip of the disease as Britain.
The timing of the campaign will depend on whether there are any more outbreaks of the disease on either side of the Border.
Dr McDaid said there was no point in either he or Sir Reg going to the US if there was the possibility of another outbreak here.
Meeting in Donegal for the first time, the North-South Tourism Council agreed to send out a strong message that Ireland was open for tourism business.