Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will first deal with the question Deputy Crowe raised, which relates to the earlier question Deputy Smith raised about the trade and economic function of the Department. It is fair to say that in the world we live in now, diplomacy is largely economic. There is a concept of economic diplomacy and if one looks at the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the past two and half years in particular, one can see it has been primarily about the restoration of our reputation, with a number of objectives in mind, including the renegotiation of the bailout arrangements and work on issues such as the interest rate premium on the loans we received; the negotiations that took place with the European Central Bank, ECB, on the promissory note; the restoration of our reputation with a view to attracting investment into the country to create employment; and promotion of our exports and our trade efforts, including the work to promote The Gathering and increase tourism.

The work of our embassies and missions abroad is very much focused on achieving an economic benefit for this country in terms of employment, investment, trade and so on. To achieve that, our objective is to bring together in as coherent and as focused a way as possible the efforts of all Departments and all State agencies that are working on those missions abroad. Deputy Smith asked earlier if we were considering any revision of our missions. I have said here previously that compared to countries of comparable size, we have a very small presence abroad. We have a very small number of missions and, comparatively speaking, a small number of diplomatic staff who are serving abroad. I said at this committee previously that once we had got through the Presidency we would be looking at our mission network and examining the best way of deploying our resources - there has been a big focus on the Presidency effort in the past six months - and we will be doing that now in the period ahead. That will also coincide with a review of the country's trade strategy, and when that review is completed it will give us an opportunity to come here and talk about it more fully.

To answer Deputy Byrne's question about how we might marry, so to speak, the issue of trade with the work of this committee, one way might be to examine the work of the Export Trade Council. The committee might give me an opportunity at some point to make a report, perhaps specifically or as a separate item on the agenda.

Deputy Crowe wondered why, if there are savings, they are not reflected in the figures, and drew attention to the programme total for 2013 on programme A. Deputy Crowe is right in that on administration issues such as pay, we have taken the total payroll, including the payroll associated with missions, and apportioned it in accordance with the level of activity for the different programmes. The fact that it is up on last year reflects the Presidency work. He will find that there are some areas where there are increases in the Estimate for 2013, and that is reflecting the apportionment of budget lines for the Presidency.

I agree with Deputy Mitchell's welcome for the Aer Lingus decision to reopen the routes to San Francisco and Toronto.