Mr. David Cooney:

I agree with Deputy Deasy. It reflects the Africa strategy and the work we have been doing. If one looks at the different stages, with an absolute disaster, humanitarian aid is going in to keep people alive. One then moves on to development where one is trying to get basic development going but then one moves on to trying to stimulate and assist with economic development. We also have a mission in Nigeria which is mainly focused on economic matters.

Croatia is completing our network of missions in EU countries which I said here before is absolutely crucial to Ireland. Every EU member state has a vote in the EU institutions - a vote that has a direct impact on the lives of Irish people. We need to be in contact with the institutions, parliaments and government departments in those countries to intervene. We had a value-for-money review of our missions in EU countries over the course of the last year. The report is available. It involved our own evaluation. An audit unit was chaired by an independent chairman and included representatives of various Government Departments, including the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Taoiseach and Finance. That report, which is a quite thorough and a very good piece of work, came to the conclusion that our missions in EU countries were value for money and that we should have a mission in every EU state.