Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Maguire is more than welcome on the basis that anybody working with the Joint Arab-Irish Chamber of Commerce is working on behalf of Ireland. His contribution during the years has been more than welcomed and, I hope, applauded.

I have some difficulty with the concepts articulated. Mr. Maguire keeps referring to the Arab world. I still do not have an understanding of what constitutes the Arab world. There are 20 countries listed. They might very well be Arab countries, but they are certainly diverse in their own right. At least eight, if not ten, are in Africa, in respect of which the Government has a strategy. Is Mr. Maguire familiar with this strategy? If he has negative comments to make, we would like to hear them.

Mr. Maguire hit all of the key issues of concern to the committee. He raised the visa issue. We are blue in the face trying to address it. He also mentioned the lack of embassies in the Arab world and Africa. Tragically, as he can appreciate, we are closing our embassies. Three closed recently. The fact that we have only three ambassadors in the Arab world shows we are under-represented. We cannot compete with the Norwegians who have three, four or five times that number.