Mr. Simon McKeever:

Can we incentivise a focus on those other parts of the world? People go to the UK because it is much easier to identify opportunity over there as they have a level of connectedness into that market. I worked for a different country's agency prior to working here. What it did very effectively was to gather all the opportunities in a particular market systematically for its companies back home. There was a central database so that a company making widgets, for example, could see who was looking for widgets in what part of the world. Such a focus should be incentivised. It is not just a matter of the technical skills about which Mr. Daly is talking. Language and cultural skills are also important. We need to take in secondary and third level education in order to build a long-term plan. This is not something that can be resolved overnight.

In respect of opportunity identification, we need to make it easier for people to get out there. People go to the UK because they can jump on a flight on a Monday morning and be back that night to put their kids to bed. Can we make it easier for companies to get out there? As I said, I have worked in another country's system in which its version of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its state agencies worked together in a very unified fashion. It is possible to combine all the assets that a government has at its disposal in a more effective way. In fairness, it is beginning to happen in Ireland. We need better co-operation between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Bord Bia and all of those guys who are working together in-market. Nobody opens a door better than an ambassador. Other countries are much better pulled together in-market. That starts at home, as I have said to this committee on previous occasions. It is something we really need to do. Furthermore, a great deal of money goes into putting a senior person from one of those entities into market, sending the individual and his or her family and educating them. There is likely to be very able local people already in the market, who could do the same thing for a fraction of the price and would be only too delighted to have the experience of working for a foreign country. That is what I did. It is an incredibly powerful way of doing things. We are probably not using the money we have in the best way we possibly can.