Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is important to explain what we are seeking to do in regard to trade. A number of Departments and agencies are involved in the trade function. These include the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has responsibility for Bord Bia and food exports. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is responsible for tourism activity. A number of other Departments now have a trade role, including the Department of Education and Skills. Education is now a product being traded.

We are seeking to have co-ordination. The lead role in any country is taken by the embassy.

The resources of both my Department and the agencies concerned are limited and consequently, we seek to achieve the greatest possible degree of co-ordination on the ground in individual countries and markets. Second, we seek to back that up here at home, mainly through the Export Trade Council the Government has established, which the respective Ministers to whom I have referred, as well as their Departments and agencies attend. In addition, the council has representatives of the private sector. For example, in countries such as Russia, we have a joint economic commission that reports through it and there are 27 separate market plans which it reports back to us. There is now in place a much more joined-up approach to trade activity. In order to provide resources to so do, some additional staff were transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. I believe the total increased allocation to meet that was approximately €400,000, mainly to provide that degree of co-ordination. I believe this is working and clearly, much of the growth of 1.4% recorded in the economy last year is export-related. The Ireland House concept, that is, the idea of having all these agencies under a single roof is something to which we try to give effect where we can. It functions very well in a number of countries and we wish to expand it.

On the issue raised by Deputy Crowe regarding consular services, as I have explained to the select committee a number of times previously, the number of diplomatic staff Ireland has compared with countries of similar size is very small. I believe we have a total of 347 all told, whereas Denmark has more than 800 such staff and countries such as Finland have approximately similar numbers. We must use our staff to best effect which is the reason, for example, when faced with something like the Presidency, we are obliged to redeploy staff from missions. However, we so do in a manner that ensures the consular services in different parts of the world are maintained.

Deputy Eric Byrne raised the strategy regarding the African countries. The current position is that as a country, we export as much in food and drink to Nigeria alone as we do to China. At present, seven of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world are located in Africa. Ireland has a high reputation in Africa, much of it derived from the success of our aid programme and it is a way of opening doors for us on the trade front, which is the reason we give such a priority to it. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan raised the international day of the girl child and I note Ireland was one of the countries which co-sponsored the resolution that established the day. We give a high priority in all our work, whether on the aid side or the human rights side, to gender equality and in our aid programme we work to support programmes that, for example, support education for girls. As for sustainability, the issue of sustainability underpins Ireland's entire approach to the aid programme. I hope it also will underpin the involvement of the private sector in the programme. This year, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and I jointly launched a programme in Kenya and Tanzania, in which we are involving private sector food companies in our aid programme because, as the Deputy noted, there is huge potential in Africa for the development of the food industry. We now have the active engagement of a number of Ireland's major food companies in that programme. It is a highly innovative approach to extending our aid programme, in that work the Government has been doing for years will now involve the private sector, which will work with private companies in African countries in the development of their food programme and the upskilling of their food processing.