Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I think it is about €5,000 per honorary consul per annum. I think that is to cover incidental costs.

The number of people of Irish descent in Montana is 164,746 people, some 16% of the population have Irish heritage and they might get a visit once every three years.

Melbourne in Australia has a major Irish community, born in Ireland and living there. I do not blame the ambassadors or the consulate, but the system or lack of one. It is up to the ambassador to decide whether to appoint somebody. That is not a system. It should be the case that every province in Canada, every state in the United States, every state in Australia would have a consulate or an honorary consul. That is a policy. Leaving it up to the ambassador is not a policy. That is leaving the situation as it is. That is not good enough. If one had a consular strategy, one could decide to review it in three year time. Then we can ask the consular services if they managed to get a consul for each state in America. God knows there are plenty to pick from but one needs to go out and do it. This initiative would assist the implementation on the ground of Government strategy in respect of trade and Ireland reaching out to incentivise people to bring jobs to Ireland. If one were to make a payment to those who were responsible for bringing a job to Ireland, there might be people in Montana who would think of moving some of their operation to Europe. Somebody has to tell them and that is why one has honorary consuls on the ground, not just to assist people in trouble but also to promote our policies and explain to a member of Congress or a public representative in those states the issue of the undocumented Irish and our concern about it.

One will often meet Irish American public representatives, who did not realise what is of concern, because we do not have people on the ground in some of those areas.

I thank my colleagues for their support.