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

The expanding diplomatic footprint is part of the Global Ireland strategy. Not a lot of people realise it but since the launch of Global Ireland, 17 new missions have been opened, including embassies in Wellington; Bogotá; Oman; Monrovia; Santiago; Kyiv; Rabat; and Manila, and consulates general in: Cardiff; Frankfurt; Los Angeles; Lyon; Manchester; Miami; Mumbai; Toronto; and Vancouver, and it is continuing. We are living through an extraordinary period of expansion of Ireland's diplomatic footprint. Part of it is driven by the aftermath of Brexit but another part of it is driven by the fact that Ireland is a globalised and relatively well-resourced country and we need to be in parts of the world where we have largely been absent or diplomatically invisible in the past. The idea that we did not have an embassy in New Zealand, for example, was extraordinary. We have had a light formal diplomatic presence in Latin America, which is why we decided to open embassies in both Chile and Colombia to add to our really good team in Mexico. Within the European Union, post Brexit we need to make sure we double down-----