James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

I have a few brief questions. I thank the Minister for being here. I commend him on his engagement with the committee. I know some of the departmental officials were here in Leinster House for the briefing of the committee. I found that very beneficial for us to understand the Department and its work. We are also looking forward to going over to the Department in January. I believe the clerk has been in communication with the Department on that matter. That helpful engagement is welcome. Something to put on the Minister's agenda is that the committee may get an opportunity to engage with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland at some point in quarter 1 2026. If the Minister is having conversations with the chief executives, I ask that he mention we might be in for a visit.

Following on from the interesting points Deputy Brennan made, the statement refers to the job and enterprise development programme receiving €16.7 million. Members of the committee was in Japan, as I am sure the Minister is aware. We were are at Expo 2025 and the new Ireland House to see the investment that has been put in. It is being led by H.E. Damien Cole, our ambassador who will shortly go to Singapore. He is doing wonderful work. I commend him on that. It struck me when I came back that Japan is Ireland's largest source of foreign direct investment in Asia but there is no direct flight between Ireland and Japan.

We are speaking about how we might decrease the risk arising from the fact Ireland gets 90% of its corporation tax take from US multinational companies. Obviously, that is hugely welcome and it is a sign of the successful work the Department and the State have undertaken to attract those companies into the country. There is an obvious risk, however. We are moving away from a unipolar world where the United States has been the dominant power in international politics since the fall of the Soviet Union more than 30 years ago into a world that is multipolar and will be much more challenging geopolitically for the country. That obviously has economic ramifications. It strikes me that if you go to Dublin Airport and look at the departure boards, there is only one flight between the continent of Asia and Ireland. That is a flight from Dublin to Beijing and there is nothing else. I think there was a link in Singapore at one point but it stopped when the pandemic occurred. That issue needs focus.

When people are brought closer together, it is much easier to do business and trade and for people to come here and learn about Ireland. What struck me in particular when in Ireland House was that we in Ireland lose track about how little people know about our country when we go to that part of the world. I have a concern about the positioning of the country and where we will be in the world economy in 20 years' time. To take one of the big events this year, 45% of the world's GDP was in the room at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation event. That could arguably be 55% or 60% of the world's GDP in 15 or 20 years. There are much more difficult countries to do business with and markets to break into, given their structure of government.

Ireland's positioning in respect of that is something I am concerned about. I would love to get the Minister's feedback on that. There is a lot of merit in the committee working on this matter and giving focus to the fact that the Minister has allocated budget for new market development, etc.