Dr. Pat Ivory:

I was asked about St. Patrick's Day and the value of the missions and travel abroad by Ministers and the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. It is a unique opportunity for a small economy such as Ireland’s to have a showcase over a week. It is very important to make the most of that for trade and investment. It is important for missions organised around St. Patrick’s Day to have a strong business element. That is increasingly the case. Senator Noone mentioned the USA. This year, as he did last year, the Taoiseach will include in his programme an address to IBEC’s key business partner in the USA, the US Chambers of Commerce in Washington. He will speak about the value of, and advancing the partnership negotiations on, trade and investment. That is particularly important. There are also very good opportunities to bring business communities together during these visits. For example, the State agencies, Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and Bord Bia will organise a business lunch to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day events. These are positive opportunities for us to showcase our ability to trade and invest abroad. During the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Brussels we organised an event with our MEPs to showcase Irish food and drink. We will do that again this year. It is a good and valuable opportunity to show other nations what we have to offer.

The Senator also asked about the base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, issue. That is extremely important, not only for Ireland but for our European partners and members of the OECD. We are closely following the OECD G20 project on BEPS and this year the work being done on it in Paris will reach important milestones. We meet regularly with the Revenue Commissioners and do joint work with our members and the Institute of Taxation to understand the progress of this project and its likely outcomes. It is most important that clear and defined rules come out of it. We have always taken what I think is the correct position, to make sure people comply, the most we can ask for is clearly defined international taxation rules and that companies follow those. That will have implications. We have many double taxation agreements, which will have to be considered. Until we see the results of this project we do not know what its likely impact will be. We are following it closely and will do so throughout this year when there are important deadlines. We are engaging with the business advisory committee to the OECD. IBEC has participated in some of its meetings in Paris on the international taxation issues and will continue to do so during the year.

Deputy Byrne asked how a small country with limited resources makes a global impact. A key part of that is building alliances. We in the business community have prioritised our own building of alliances with business partners, within and outside Europe, for example, in the United States. We must also recognise where we trade and invest, the European Union, the UK and the eurozone are very important trading partners and therefore it is important to maintain and work on our presence within the Union. We have limited resources and need to develop business elsewhere. We would welcome a review of where embassies are based, for example, a new embassy will open in Kenya. Africa offers opportunities not only for Ireland to assist development through Irish Aid, but increasingly African countries seek trading partners. Having worked with the group of African ambassadors here I know they are very keen that we develop trade links with Africa. The opening of the embassy in Kenya is very positive, in addition to our embassy in South Africa.

Members mentioned the work of the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with responsibility for European Affairs, Deputy Donohoe, in representing Ireland. We were very happy to welcome him to the most recent meeting of our EU and international trade committee, last week. We had a very good exchange of views with him on advancing business priorities in this important year of change within the Union, with elections of MEPs, a new Commission being appointed, a new Commission President and a new Council President.

Deputy Byrne also asked whether students are coming to Ireland or going to Asia, specifically Korea. The number of students coming into Ireland has been increasing.

This is a great tribute to the strength of our education system and what our universities and institutes of technology have to offer. It is important to acknowledge that education services are an increasingly developing part of our internationally traded services. We expect the review being carried out by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to pay greater attention to the potential of the education sector to grow our internationally-traded services. We view this as positive.

We have significant programmes to try to help graduates work abroad. The export orientation programme has been running for many years. It gives young Irish people with basic qualifications the opportunity to work with companies abroad and gain valuable business experience and develop their language skills. Our Brussels office has a long tradition of using stagiaires who work for six months to gain experience at European level. It is important that these initiatives are continued.