David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is my final comment. It was mentioned that Canada has chosen March as its Irish heritage month. There was a unanimous decision in the Canadian Parliament, and Mr. James Maloney MP, the rapporteur for the Canada-Ireland Interparliamentary Friendship Group on the other side, was very instrumental. We must recognise him for furthering that work. It is massively important for us because as the Minister of State said, so many Irish people over the centuries and decades have contributed so much. Our ambassador out there, Eamonn McKee, has done a lot of work in pulling this together. It is really insightful to see the impact they have had. Perhaps we need to do more here in Ireland to recognise Canada. We have a great relationship with the United States and that is hugely important but our relationship with Canada needs more tender loving care to build it up further. Has the Minister of State or anyone else in the Department any further plans to visit Canada in the near future?

On increasing our footprint there with respect to IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, and more staff and support for those organisations, I feel that if they had that extra resource they could do even more than they are doing at the moment in that massed market. This is especially the case in the centre of Canada. Calgary has the second largest concentration of head offices in Canada, behind Toronto, and yet we seem to fly over it to Vancouver and not land there or use the potential that it has.