Mr. John Whelan:

The Senator mentioned Indonesia, where we do not have an embassy. His question underlines again that Indonesia has a major economy, is growing rapidly and there are great opportunities there. Moreover, as there is state domination, the embassy structure can be very important there. This underpins the earlier points we were making.

On the whole issue of EU versus Irish export growth, one would have to take the years since 2008. Our exports had dipped down very heavily so, as they are coming back up, comparison levels can get lost in the year-to-year situation. Generally, our manufacturing side has been suffering and our services side has been growing extremely rapidly and continues to underpin Ireland as one of the top locations for services export globally. What we need to be careful of is that 75% of all our FDI last year came in by way of services companies, and this could be a long-term concern for exporters on the manufacturing side. We have to watch the trends over more than one year.

The main issue on Schengen is our relationship with Britain. If we pull out of Schengen, every time people go to Northern Ireland, they would have to get a pass. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says this is its only issue with Schengen so-----