Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's comments on the embassies. Our diplomatic services provide very high value for money. There is a lot of leadership in the various missions.

They are not large in numbers but they are strong in capacity and leadership and I think that is a distinguishing feature of our diplomatic service. Some of that is due to the manner and model of recruitment and the model of the workplace environment is strong. There is a great deal of mentoring, of mutual supports, from what I can see, and many young people are anxious to come in. We need to continue to nurture that. I saw that recently among our team at the UN Security Council, when we were on the Security Council. I was very impressed. We have many hungry young people, in addition to the more senior personnel who are on my right and left and who are anxious to serve in the diplomatic service. That is a positive and good thing. I saw in Mozambique recently where young Irish people were participating in the peace secretariat run by the UN and had a very telling role to play on that. It is very positive.

We have opened 19 new missions and, by any yardstick, it has been a fairly dramatic expansion over the last five or six years. This is something I have always believed in and advocated for because this is exactly the Deputy's point. With two, three or four people in a particular mission, we can achieve a great deal for the country, economically and on a consular basis, in looking after citizens and their needs. This can be in Bogotá, Wellington, Amman, Monrovia, San Diego, Chile, Kyiv, Manila, Dakar, Teheran and Rabat and the new consulates general in Vancouver, Mumbai, Cardiff, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Manchester, Lyon, Toronto and Miami. I am looking at the Western Balkans and the candidate countries and believe, as we did in the past, when there are new states on the cusp of joining, we should have a presence there. I am looking at Melbourne and other areas as well to see what the next tranche will be and I will come back to the committee on that. I take the Deputy's point but I am looking at all of those areas with regard to expansion. We have had very substantial expansion and that has stretched personnel and makes for a much more different organisation but on Ireland's footprint, that is good and has many benefits, including cultural.