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

I thank the delegations for their presentations, as we need assistance in formulating our new foreign policy. If I interpreted them correctly, they are saying that while Ireland is a small nation that does a phenomenal job for its size, we will need to do much more to survive. Several years ago three embassies were closed on the grounds of economic necessity, but now we have reopened one of them. Embassy staff do phenomenal work in promoting Ireland. There are 27 ambassadors to each of our EU colleagues and then there are the representatives in Brussels, covering a population base of 800 million. How do we develop and expand our foreign and trade policy, given such a concentration of diplomatic representatives in European Union member states for this small state with limited resources? We closed the embassy in Teheran which is at the centre of another region of 800 million people. How do we balance our limited diplomatic resources to cover countries such as Iran, the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and Asia, as well as the emerging African economies? How do we divide the pot of resources?

If I wished to be provocative I would suggest that perhaps too much money is going into the diplomatic services in Europe. I will expect an answer in that regard. There are up to 30 missions. At the same time we are looking at the broader world economies and emerging economies and are conscious that we should send diplomats there. However, we just closed three embassies in the recent past. The question is one of resources. How do the witnesses think we should manage the resources?

I will conclude by addressing what was said by Ms Cross, which was very interesting. It has been put to us previously, not just at this committee, but also in the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. We keep hearing about the need for Irish people to be engaged at the heart of Europe as civil servants. The Minister of State, Deputy Donohoe, has engaged progressively with universities everywhere he goes. There are repeated calls to send more people into the European bureaucracy or diplomatic corps. It was stated that Ireland is an English speaking country which has its pluses. It also has its minuses in that we are very bad at languages. How can we compensate in that regard? We are very successful in attracting more and more foreign students and even though there are bilateral agreements we know that Irish students are not going to Korea to replace the Korean students who come to this country. That is just one example. There is a reluctance borne of inferiority among Irish students who are nervous of going to China, Korea, and Indonesia or wherever else, in effect because of the language issue.

I congratulate Ms Cross on her involvement with the Institute of International and European and Affairs, IIEA. I never heard of it until I became a Member of Parliament. I went to some fascinating talks there. Anyone who does not know about it should quickly get to know it because it is a fantastic organisation.