Thank you sincerely for inviting me here today to officially launch the new Internet website for the Úna Bhán region. It marks another milestone in the success story of your tourism co-op since its foundation just a decade ago. While I am aware the site is already up and running, I believe it is important nonetheless, to mark its arrival officially at an occasion such as this. It is important for two reasons:-

• to maximise publicity for the project itself, and
• to acknowledge publicly, on behalf of the Government, the major contribution which your Society has made, and of course continues to make, through its tourism endeavours to the economic well-being of the whole community here in County Roscommon.

The list of Úna Bhán's achievements over the course of the '90s is very impressive, and it gives me great pleasure to acknowledge them briefly now. Not alone was the Úna Bhán Co-operative Society a founder member of the national body, Irish Country Holidays, but the example which it has since set is largely responsible for the fact that today that umbrella organisation has as many as sixteen affiliated rural tourism regions throughout the country on its books. As entrepreneurs of rural tourism promotion the dedicated shareholders of Úna Bhán have also been unique in leading the way on the commercial front with the provision of the Restaurant and Craft Shop at King House which, apart from benefiting visitors to this beautiful area, also provides an excellent service to Boyle itself. My Government colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr Jim McDaid, I know is particularly anxious that the Irish tourism season be extended as far as possible outside the high season, and the fact that this facility is open here all year round greatly assists that drive. I am also aware that Dr McDaid has been strongly promoting the policy of partnership endeavour for the Irish tourism industry as a whole - partnership between the industry's private sector and the agencies of the state. The Úna Bhán Committee has answered that call and for some time now has been very active in co-operative marketing campaigns, both at home and overseas, with the Regional Tourism Authority and Bord Fáilte. Here too excellent example has been set which many other tourism groups have since followed. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Úna Bhán Tourism Co-op last year was the national winner of the AIB/Farmers Journal coveted National Agri-Tourism Award.

It was only a matter of time, therefore, and it comes as no surprise to me considering your record to date, before Úna Bhán would become directly involved in the world's latest communications phenomenon, the Internet. Bord Fáilte have just recently reported that its website, which incidentally, earlier this year, won the Best National Tourist Board Award at Innsbruck in Austria, has now passed the million visitor mark. They also state that the Internet has become the most important source of enquiries for Irish tourism generally, and exceeds those from all other sources including telephone, written and walk-in requests. This of course means that in due course Úna Bhán can expect to reflect that pattern which in turn will be translated into significant export earning potential for this region.

In now officially declaring the Úna Bhán internet site officially open for business I would also like to acknowledge the major support for the project by Ireland West Tourism, who funded the software, and by my Government colleague, Mr. Noel Davern, T.D., Minister for Rural Development, through the Arigna LEADER Company who funded the hardware. It is also appropriate here for me to acknowledge the assistance which the Roscommon County Enterprise Board (headed up by Mr. Gerry Finn) and FAS have provided to various Úna Bhán projects on an on-going basis.

Finally, the expertise and creativity of Firebird Web Design in Boyle is deserving of the congratulations of everyone here for producing the attractive and sophisticated site which, even as I speak, is being accessed by internet visitors worldwide - internet visitors many of whom I have no doubt will become real visitors to the Úna Bhán region in the not to distant future.