Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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It is interesting that the closure of the embassies did not affect our re-establishment of the beef trade with Iran. This should be welcomed. The closing of an embassy does not mean the doors will be closed on one forever.

I appreciate that the Africa strategy is relatively young. However, we are becoming increasingly conscious, as we drift away from the black-baby box concept, that there are countries within the continent of Africa that are of growing economic importance. Is there preliminary feedback on our trade with African colleagues?

The President is in Brazil at present and I understand he is accompanied by the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. As the Minister is formulating his budget for next year, he should target the BRIC countries. There is no doubt that we have done a good day's work already in Brazil through heightening our profile. I am not quite sure, however, that we are benefiting sufficiently from our relationships with Russia and India.

We see Chinese visitors in our Parliament every other week, which clearly indicates there is great interest in Ireland in China. I understand the DIT is doing phenomenally well in establishing a college in China, where it will specialise in tourism and catering. We are contributing in that regard. Given the excellent relationship we are developing with China, is there any tangible sign yet of knock-on effects such as investment or growth in Ireland?

We should concentrate on the developing countries that are now powerful. I congratulate those who decided to incorporate the trade mission with the presidential visits. I congratulate the President, who has taken time out to learn Spanish at Santander university in Spain.

The Tánaiste's Department is the poster-boy Department. We would very much like to see its funding retained. I hope the funding will follow the Tánaiste as he is to be chairman of the OSCE next year. We could debate that another day. Next year will be very important. The budgetary allocation for a successful six-month term of the EU Presidency is important.