News in Brief

Almost seven million people visited Ireland last year according to latest figures released by Tourism Ireland. Showing an increase of six percent on 2004, the annual report revealed a slight drop in the number of visitors from the U.S. (to 950,800). “This performance was underpinned by an excellent performance from Europe and a positive performance by the British market,” said Paul O’Toole, chief executive at the tourist agency. He acknowledged that “the going was tough last year” for some sectors in the tourist industry, but the highly touted arrival of the Ryder Cup in Co. Kildare has raised prospects for 2006 . . .