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Irish at Paris MICE show

Three Irish tourism companies travelled to France , to attend Salon Réunir International, a trade show for the MICE and business travel sector which took place at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris.

Pictured are Eva Schmid, Killarney Hotels Ltd; Christophe de Patoul, Irish Horizons; Eileen Timmons, Tifco Hotel Group; and Caroline Markey, Tourism Ireland.

The two-day event (formerly known as Meedex International) gave the participating tourism companies an excellent opportunity to meet, and do business with, more than 2,000 of France’s most influential corporate meeting and event planners – through a series of workshops, seminars, networking events and at the ‘Meet in Ireland’ stand. Meet in Ireland is the official MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) brand for the island of Ireland, which comprises three tourism authorities, Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland.

Second Runway for Dublin Airport

DAA is to build a new runway at Dublin Airport, in a bid to ensure further growth at the airport.

Permission for the new runway, which will be built 1.6km north of the current main runway, was originally granted in 2007 with 31 conditions attached. The economic downturn and the subsequent fall in passengers coming through the airport saw the plans put on hold.

Passenger numbers at the airport have grown in the past two years.

The new runway is expected to be completed by 2020, and it will cost around €320 million.

However, the airport authority warned that two of the conditions attached to the planning permission were “onerous” and would severely reduce the future operational capacity of the airport at key times.

Tourism Ireland welcomed the announcement.

Meehan headsITAA

Bundoran-based travel agency owner, Cormac Meehan, has been elected President of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) at the Association's AGM in Dublin.

Cormac Meehan is the owner of Meehan Travel, an independent retail travel agency that was established by his late father, Sean, in 1954.

The Irish Travel Agents Association also announced its elected and re-elected board members today. Newly elected and re-elected Board members are Des Manning of Manning Travel, Kilkenny, Pearse Keller, Keller Travel, Ballinasloe, Galway, Martin Skelly of Navan Travel, Meath, Ben Greene of Arrow Tours, Drogheda, Louth, Clare Dunne, The Travel Broker, Clontarf, Dublin, Valerie Metcalfe of FCM, Dublin, Jim McGonigle of Clondalkin Travel, Clondalkin, Dublin, Mark Clifford, O’Hanrahans Travel, Monaghan,Angela Walsh of CTM, Cork, Joe Tully of Tully Travel, Carlow, Des Abbott, of Des Abbott Travel, Dublin 7, was elected as Treasurer

Ten Closure Orders in March

Ten food businesses were served with closure orders during the month of March for breaches of food safety legislation and European Commission regulations.

Three closure orders were served under the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act on:

- The Millrace Hotel (a partial closure order was served on all food preparation and service activities in and from the kitchen and ancillary stores and in the main bar and the store room at the rear of the main bar), Carrigduff, Bunclody, Wexford.

- Milebush Bar and Restaurant (also a partial order, served on preparation and service of food only), Fairgreen, Mountmellick Road, Portlaoise, Laois.

- Fryer’s (take-away), Patrick Street, Boyle, Roscommon.

Chefs to cycle for Cystic Fibrosis

Flogas is to sponsor the Inaugural YesChef charity cycle.

in aid of Cystic Fibrosis on 23rd – 25th May 2016. Well-known chefs Derry Clarke of L’Ecrivain in Dublin, JP McMahon of Aniar in Galway and Bryan McCarthy of Greenes in Cork will be joined by Warren Gillen of Cistin Eile in Wexford, Johnny Garcia from Relish in Dundalk in addition to 80 other cyclists working in the hospitality industry.

Paul Ruegg, marketing executive, Flogas is pictured with Shane Smith of YesChef Ireland.

The 300k (186 miles) three-day pedal will begin and end at Lisdoonvarna in Co. Clare, looping its way through Galway, Kinvara, Spiddal and ending at the Burren Slow Food Festival.

Organiser Shane Smith of YesChef Ireland hopes to raise between €12-15,000 for Cystic Fibrosis in the Republic and Northern Ireland.