Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister mentioned I was in India. Enterprise Ireland is planning its trade missions for 2017.

Asia will be a central focus for those trade missions. As the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor has said, I led a trade mission of 14 Irish companies to India in the past ten days. We were focused on the area of aviation, which might be of interest to Deputy Neville since he is from Limerick. India is a big country with a population of 1.3 billion people and those responsible there are looking at connecting the smaller towns with regional routes using smaller aircraft. This is where Ireland can help because Ireland leases half the aircraft in the world to airline companies. I had the pleasure of opening an aviation show there as well and we met the Indian Minister of Civil Aviation.

Another area we concentrated on was information and communications technology. The Irish companies were looking for business there but we also visited the key Indian companies that have a footprint in Ireland. Wipro is based in Dublin and Shannon and Techtronics is in Dublin and Waterford. We met the key executives in those companies. They are in the mode of expanding worldwide at the moment. We made a pitch through Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to ensure that Ireland would be considered in that context.

The good news from those companies is that they are very happy with our workforce and with our costs as well.

These trade missions are worthwhile. The President, Mr. Higgins, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, were in Laos and Vietnam recently. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, made a successful visit to China and Japan.

We also could have a greater diplomatic presence in those areas as well. I hope that when the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reviews its footprint in Asia, it will consider opening more consulate offices, especially in India. That is one point I will be discussing with the Minister, Deputy Flanagan. We do not have a presence in Mumbai at the moment. Since it is the most commercial city in India, I hope that we can put in place a consulate office there. Having a permanent presence and working in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland is vital. In that way we can attract more industry to Ireland. We are the fastest-growing economy in Europe and India is the fastest-growing economy in the world. We are looking forward and hoping that Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland will continue these trade missions in view of Brexit. As the Deputy pointed out, it is a question of diversifying into other regions while ensuring that we continue our presence in Europe, the UK and America.