Mr. John Whelan:

I will take the first piece and then I imagine my colleagues in IBEC will answer. There is a need to evaluate return on investment with all expenditure. The response by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to our request for a greater presence in the emerging markets has been that it would have to be done within the existing budget. We strongly welcome the fact that the Department has appointed a house to carry out a review of the value of the embassy structure throughout the other 26 EU member states. We will be meeting the people the Department has appointed to carry out the review to establish the value for money or return of our 26 EU member state embassies. One assumes the Department can then assess whether it can save anything in that respect as a first stage to shifting money to some of the other embassies abroad. The process of benchmarking is fully accepted by the Department. Once we have finished the EU 26 I am keen to see the process carried out in Africa to determine if value for money is coming from Africa as well.