Mr. Martin Murray:

I think it is a critical issue because while our ambassadors and diplomatic teams on the ground do a very good job, as do the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, in reality many other European destinations have ten times the number of personnel on the ground compared with us, particularly in countries such as China. I will give an example from the key sector of food, whereby Ireland has one Bord Bia person in Shanghai and recently has appointed a second Bord Bia person in Singapore. It is not credible to have two people covering the food sector in all of Asia. We have competitor destinations that have 50 times and more people selling in the same markets. With the best will in the world and with some local staff supporting them, these people are not getting the resources they need. Bord Bia has set highly ambitious targets to double the exports to Asia by 2020. To deliver on this target, it needs more people on the ground, knocking on doors selling. I had the privilege of accompanying the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, on the recent trade visit to Japan and Korea and it was very obvious how effective this was. There were approximately 40 agricompanies there but the common thread was that many people were learning about Ireland for the first time. It takes times to build a relationship and trust.

The same applies equally in education. I can talk to members about Indonesia. Indonesians know very little about Ireland. We recently brought in an education expert from the ministry and that person had no idea whatsoever about Ireland. The only things that expert knew about Ireland was that I am the honorary counsel. We see this happening in tourism. They just do not know who we are or where we are. We need people on the ground constantly selling and telling.