Speaking last Friday from the Ireland India Trade & Tourism forum at Clontarf Castle, Lord Rana, who accompanied an Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on a recent trade mission to India, said that because of conflicting visa requirements, a separate holiday visa costing around 100 was required for both Ireland and the UK. This means that an Indian family of five that wanted to visit both Dublin and Belfast would ace an additional cost of 1,000.

"I think that this is a crazy situation if Ireland is trying to attract visitors from fastdeveloping countries like China and India, " he said.

Around 200,000 visitors from India land at London airports every year, said Lord Rana. "Very few of them ever venture into Ireland."

Conference organiser Bernice Paolozzi believes Ireland should promote itself as a film location for India's Bollywood film industry, helping boost awareness about Ireland which will translate into interest among India's rising middle classs in visiting Ireland.

Beyond tourism, inward trade missions to the island of Ireland from booming China and India also faced difficulties, in part because of onerous visa requirements. This is just at the moment the EU is hoping to begin bilateral talks with India and ASEAN to reduce tariffs between the two regions.

Meanwhile, unless Ireland's visa situation is harmonised with the rest of Europe, deals that may have been struck in Dublin could instead be concluded in London, Lord Rana said.