Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On that question, the global footprint project very much involves the agencies, including Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia, Tourism Ireland, IDA Ireland and a number of the arts organisations.

We are trying to use all of the tools Ireland has to reach out in a more effective and ambitious way in order to extend Irish influence and create opportunities. It is being led by the Taoiseach's Department, but it is supported by mine.

On the public services card, since 29 March 2016 the Passport Office has required all first-time applicants aged 18 years and over who are resident in Ireland to submit a copy of their public services card. It is not anything new and also applies to a small number of adult passport applicants whose passports were issued before 1 January 2006 and reported as lost, stolen or damaged. The measure has been an important step in providing protection against fraud and identity theft and upholding the integrity of the Irish passport. All passport applications from Irish citizens will continue to be subject to rigorous identification and entitlement checks. The introduction of the PSC requirement has allowed the Passport Office to dispense with the requirements to supply certain additional documentation and reduces the overall volume of documentation Irish citizens must submit when applying for a passport. The purpose of the public services card has been twisted in the political debate, but it tries to create a more efficient system to provide services for people quickly and with the minimum amount of bureaucracy.

On 17 July 2017 the Government agreed that, by the fourth quarter of this year, all adult applicants resident in the State who wished to renew their passport would require a public services card. We recognise that many changes are happening in passport delivery. We were asked to introduce the change at the start of this year, but I said that was not viable as too much was going on in the Passport Office in terms of efficiency improvements. By the end of the year, however, we will I hope be able to introduce the requirement which we think makes sense from the point of view of efficiency.

The Deputy also asked about passport applications from abroad. The public services card requirement does not and will not apply to Irish citizens who are normally resident outside the State. They include people living in Northern Ireland.

Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked about choosing embassies and countries. One cannot choose countries solely on the basis of being comfortable with everything they do. There are question marks against Iran, for example, but many people would be able to make a coherent case for opening an embassy there at some stage in the future, as practically every European country has an embassy there. There are challenges in post-conflict Colombia, but it is trying to build a stable society and economy, in which task we want to be able to support it. Once one moves beyond comfortable territory such as with EU member states which all apply the same rules and into the Arab world, North Africa and Latin America one will have challenges, but having an embassy in a country gives us a say and an opportunity to have conversations we would otherwise not have. They may be on human rights issues or may help us to better understand the challenges certain countries face. Morocco has an embassy here. We will have to look at reciprocating in the future because we do not currently have any embassy in that part of Africa. It does not mean that we agree with Morocco on everything, but creating relationships through proper diplomatic channels allows us to extend our reach and become relevant in political debates in different parts of the world. It is easy to refer to problems in countries in other parts of the world which have a different history from ours, but the point in expanding our global footprint is to move out of our comfort zone and create new friendships and partnerships. On the back of this there will be trading opportunities for Irish businesses and businesses that wish to use Ireland as a gateway to the European Union.